Family Ties
by FandomsUnite17
Summary: This fanfic has been renamed. It's original name was "Elian and the avatar" - There's been one question on Aang's mind recently. "Am I it? Am I really the last airbender?" Well, what if that question could be answered? IS he really the last airbender? And what connections could there be with him and this new mysterious girl? Who is she really? - Rated TEEN just to safe.
1. Chapter 1: Ice to meet you

**Before you start reading this one, I strongly advise you to read the revised version of this fanfic easily** **accessible from my profile! Thank you for listening! Fan7 out~**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of it's characters.**

 **Hello everyone! This is my first fanfiction so I'm sorry if its a bit unprofessional. I would love to hear your feedback, so please review. There will be no inappropriate romance or language. Enjoy!**

My name is Elian, and I'm an airbender. I thought I had a normal life but, boy was I wrong! This is my story and I'm gonna show you how I helped restore balance to the world I never knew.

Me, Tiki, and Cosmo were hanging out at the edge of the island I lived on. We had been relaxing and watching the stars and were about to go get some sleep, but before I could start actually walking I got an incredible pain in my stomach. It felt like it was getting twisted into a knot inside. Tears streamed down my face as I hunched over, putting my arms over my stomach. I stumbled backwards as water surrounded us in streams until it became a bubble. The bubble shrunk until it was almost pressing on us, then in one quick movement it pulled us into the lake behind me. With one hand I grabbed Cosmo and held him up against me, with the other I grabbed Tiki's strap. Then I felt the water around me get colder and colder, and then solidify into ice. Then I had a vision of an airbender riding his sky bison through a very heavy storm. The young airbender screamed before a big wave dragged him and his sky bison underwater. He grabbed his bison's strap before his eyes and tattoo's started glowing and he bent the water around him frozen. The boy seemed familiar though I'd never seen him before.

It had been a week since Aang defeated the phoenix king. It was his birthday tomorrow, so he was about to be thirteen. He was on his way to Omashu because Bumi had asked him over for a visit, seeing as how it was his birthday tomorrow. He and Appa were both tired though, so they would have to stop for the night. "How about we find somewhere to sleep for the night, huh buddy?" he said.

Appa answered with one of his typical groans, and ten minutes later they were landing for the night on a small island. Appa laid down in a clearing and Aang fell asleep on his back. In the morning Aang woke up Appa then looked around. That's when he realized how incredibly overgrown the island actually was. It looked like it hadn't been touched for a few decades now. Appa trailed behind Aang as he headed for the edge of the island. When he got to the edge though, he saw something he would never forget. Something that changed his life forever. There was a giant chunk of ice in the middle of the lake. But there, frozen in the ice, were the three things that changed his life. The first and biggest was a sky bison, the smallest a lemur bat, and the one in the middle an airbender. Yes an airbender, he wasn't the last! But it wasn't real, it couldn't be. It was just a dream, like all the others.

"Appa? I'm dreaming...right?" Then Aang bent a bridge of earth and crossed it to the ice. He reached out his hand to touch the ice, but as soon as his fingers brushed the ice his eyes and tattoo's started glowing, along with the eyes and tattoo's of the female airbender, and he floated above the lake, spraying mist over the area. But this time, for the second time in his life, he had full and complete control. Then the symbols of the four nations etched themselves into the ice, centered on where he touched it. Aang lowered himself to the ice, still in the avatar state. Then the ice cracked, cracked a few more times and shattered, turning into water that Aang easily bent away. Then everything calmed down and Aang fell to his knee's, leaving the avatar state. He sat there for a minute before gathering enough strength to get up and go look at the girl, where Appa came up to join him. She looked just like him except for the long, dark brown hair. Even the eyes were a perfect match.

What seemed like a second after the last, I had another vision. It was the same airbender , but this time he was freed from the ice by a waterbender girl and her brother. After asking the girl if she'd go sledding, he shouted "Appa!" and climbed over into the ice he was trapped in. As soon as he was over, I woke up. I slowly opened my eyes and just lay there, letting go of Tiki's strap. I could feel Cosmo laying against me and was relieved to feel his chest rise and lower as he breathed. Then I heard someone talking in the background.

"You think she's ok?" The loud groaning of an animal answered him. Then I sat up but it was hard, I felt like my arms had no strength to them. I looked around. My island was overgrown, like **way** overgrown. 'How long was I frozen?' I thought. Then I noticed the one who talked. He was an airbender, and he had a pretty big sky bison with him. Last of all, he was staring straight at me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah." I answed.

"I'm Aang." He said, holding his hand out.

"Yeah." I said again, letting him help me up. I was holding Cosmo and could tell he was just as confused as I was as his long black fur ruffled in the breeze. Then I slowly walked over to Tiki.

"Tiki? C'mon girl." I said, shaking her as much as I could. I pushed against her side with all the strength I had and called to her again.

"Tiki?" She stirred and moaned softly, and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Is everyone ok?" Aang asked.

"Yeah, I think so. What happened?" I asked.

"Not sure. You sure you're ok? You don't look so good." He said.

'Am I ok?!' I thought. 'No, why in the fudge would I be ok?! I have no idea what's going on, I'm sore everywhere, and not to mention I'm starving! I am not ok.' I calmed myself down and simply answered him "I don't know."

"Come with me, I can get some help." Said Aang.

"No, no, I just...oh, I don't even know where to start. I have no idea what's going on, and I need to figure out something. I have no idea how long it's been, and I've got to find something to feed them with-" I said, gesturing to Tiki and Cosmo. "-in **this** mess of an island. And- "

"Whoa, whoa, slow down. You sure you don't need any help?" He asked again.

"No, I don't, I mean, I'm fine, I mean, I can handle it. Oh, I'm so sorry, I just-" I sighed in defeat and looked down. "I-"

"Come with me, I've got someone I want you to meet." Said Aang.

So I got on Tiki and told her, "Follow him ok?" She responded with a soft groan. Then me and Aang shouted at the same time. "Yip-Yip!"

We looked at each other and laughed a bit before setting off.

Despite it being an almost hour long trip, we didn't really talk. But somehow I felt like I could trust him.

"Here we are, Omashu City!" Said Aang excitedly. He seemed happy to not be alone.

"So where are we going exactly?" I asked.

"The palace." He responded.

"The palace? You know someone at the palace?" I asked.

"You'll see." He said with a smile.

 **So, what do you think? I think I like how it turned out, but I'd really like to hear what you thought about it, so please add in that review. Stay tuned if you enjoyed it, because I'm planning the next one.**


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Omashu!

**Welcome back for part two! I will have the other characters, just not quite yet. Well, here's chapter two! Hope you enjoy!**

The sun shone brightly as we rode over the beautiful earth kingdom city of Omashu. Well, it had seen better days. There were buildings falling apart everywhere, and it just looked like ruin. Now that I think about it, everything kind of seemed off. 'How long have I really been frozen? What could I have possibly missed?' I thought. "I know it's really awkward to bring this up but, how long was I frozen?" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm not sure, but maybe I can help you figure it out?" Aang asked.

"Yeah." I answered, smiling a bit.

I don't know what it is, but something about him just seems different.

"Hey, I never got your name." Aang said suddenly.

"Oh, it's-" I suddenly stopped, trying to hold back a sneeze. Unfortunately it didn't work and I sneezed, flying above Tiki. When I came down, I tried to grab one of Tiki's horns but ended up catching it with my legs, so I was hanging upside down. "Elian." I said with a sigh.

You could tell Aang was trying very hard to not laugh. I airbent myself onto Tiki's back and, realizing how funny that must of looked, started laughing. Aang immediately joined in, realizing I wouldn't mind if he laughed. I felt so at peace, just laughing and hanging out. That wasn't going to last long. We were here, and landing. I didn't know anything, not yet.

We landed in a stone circle with stairs up to the palace doors on one side, and got off the bison, heading up the stairs. When we got to the top of the stairs, the guard's opened the doors and said "Welcome. The king is waiting, first door on the right down the left hall."

"Thanks!" Aang answered.

"Th-th-the king?!" I stuttered. "I-I can't just go see the king! He'll, he, you don't just bring a friend to a meeting with the king!"

"Who said anything about a meeting? Anyway I know him personally, he'll want to meet you." Aang said calmly.

"But, but, huh?" I stuttered.

"You'll see." He said.

So we walked down a long room and entered the left hall. We walked down the hall until we were standing in front of the first door on the right, like the guards instructed. Aang reached out for the handle, but before he could turn it I said "Wait. Are you sure he'll be ok with an extra person just showing up?"

"Of course. Trust me." He said.

I took a deep breath and told myself he was probably right. I should just trust him, he did save me after all. "Ok." I said nervously.

Aang smiled at me and then opened the door slowly. It was a very comfy looking room. It had windows that bathed the room in light. The walls were strung with banners and paintings. There was a large rug in the middle of the room and chairs were sitting around randomly.

I walked in nervously beside Aang. When he saw me he smiled knowingly. "Welcome Avatar Aang." Said the king.

Aang smiled widely and ran up to him, giving him a big hug. The king returned the hug and said "It's nice to see you again Aang."

"Avatar?!" I screamed. But then, remembering my visions, I said suddenly "But of course! You're the boy from the ice! But wait, AVATAR?!"

"Yeah, who else would it be? I mean, if the next avatar was an airbender. We are the last two after all." Aang said.

Disbelief consumed me and tears streamed down my cheeks as I fell to my knees. Even though I lived on my own island and the monks didn't use the word, they were my family. And my airbending teacher, Gyosto, was a father to me. I couldn't believe they were gone, all of them. "No, NO!" I shouted before my eyes and tattoo's started glowing and, crying worse than ever, I started to lose control of myself.

Then from my upper back sprouted wings made of the three elements other than my own, earth, water, and fire. The wings were bat like and huge, if I wanted I could wrap them around another person entirely, each. They were earth at the part closest to my body, water in the middle, and fire on the end.

Then I heard something and looked to see Aang staring straight at me. Then he started talking to me, trying to calm me down. "I know what you're feeling, trust me! I felt the same way when I found out! They may not be here anymore, but I am! I'm still here, and we can still be a family!" He had to shout for me to hear.

I thought on his words, and somehow they calmed me. I landed and my eyes and tattoo's stopped glowing, and my wings disappeared in a quick breeze. I felt so weak, half because of grief. I fell onto my knees, too weak to stand, and fell over onto Aang's shoulder. We were the last two. It seemed impossible, but apparently it wasn't. I just continued to cry as Aang told me "It'll be ok, I promise."

But what confused me most was the king's reaction. He had this suspiciously knowing smile on his face. He didn't even seem surprised, let alone angry. I want to know more about him.

 **Well, I hope you liked it! Sorry this chapter's so short. But I would love, love, love you're feedback, so please review! Keep your eyes open for the next chapter, and have a nice day!**


	3. Chapter 3: Toph's side

**Hey! Back for part three, huh? Just wanted to say I didn't notice until now that the first chapter didn't get its name. It was supposed to be called "Ice to meet you" but the name didn't save right. Anyways, how'd you like the last chapter? Well if you liked that one, and are missing the other characters, you'll like this one! Well, I won't keep you waiting!**

Finally my turn huh?Well even though the war's over it hasn't exactly been happy vile.People can't just be satisfied with the fact that there's no more war,they need to have perfect lives right away!I don't get these people,we just saved their buts and they can't even be a bit grateful!Well usually TwinkleToes does most of that stuff,but since he's leaving we'll have to do everything ourselves.Everyone wants stuff!Well I'm just here to tell you what's going on, so here it is.

It had been a long day, but unfortunately it wasn't over yet.TwinkleToes is gonna be thirteen tomorrow so he got some special invite from Bumi, just for him.We were seeing him off after dinner.And we'd all been staying at the fire palace so it was easier to settle and get things straightened out.Anyway, I was outside playing around with a boulder. I'd made it into a throne and hopped ontop of it when Katara came outside. "There you are, I've been looking for you everywhere! Dinner's ready, come inside."

"Fine." Toph responded.

And they both went back inside. Naturally everyone was already at the table and waiting for her. She and Katara both sat down and they all told Aang "Happy birthday" before eating. Once they were done, they went outside to where Appa was staying at and watched Aang get on him. "Bye guys, I'll be back the day after tomorrow! Yip-yip, Appa!" Aang said.

"Have a nice trip, Aang!" Katara shouted, waving.

"See ya TwinkleToes!" Toph shouted as Appa disappeared under the moonlight.

So I went back inside and decided to mess with the boulder a bit more before exploring the palace.

In about an hour I left the boulder and head in to explore the palace. This place was humungous! I'd better get started if I want to explore the whole palace, or at least a good part of it.

It had been a few hours since I started exploring, and it was getting pretty dark. I decided I'd head back up and go to bed after this last room. When I went in it, I felt statues everywhere. Hundreds of them actually, and they were all avatars. In the very middle of the room was the statue of Aang. When I went up to it though, I felt it moving. It wasn't going anywhere, but it was morphing and twisting. "Guys! Come take a look at this!" Toph shouted.

In a minute the other three came in. "What happened?" Sokka asked.

"Is everything ok?" Katara asked.

"The statue." Toph said, pointing.

The others turned their gaze to the statue. "What is that?!" Zuko said in surprise.

"I think it was a statue of Aang." Katara said, looking at the warped, glowing eyes. "You think he's ok?"

"Not sure, but whatever's going on I hope he doesn't look like this statue." Toph said.

"TOPH!" Sokka scolded as Katara gasped.

"I'm just sayin." Toph said.

"I'm sure he's fine, he probably just got upset or something and activated the avatar state." Zuko said.

Then, as the statue warped further, it started to form a second person. The second person looked a lot like Aang, she just had long dark red hair instead of no hair. Aang and other person had their arms around each other's shoulders and were both wearing the same cheesy grin Aang always used.

"Uh, guys?" Toph said.

"Woah." Zuko said as the statue finished it's change.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Katara asked worriedly.

"Hmm." Sokka said, inspecting the statue.

"sokka! Stop it! It might be dangerous!" Katara warned.

"Dangerous? Seriously Katara?" Sokka said. Just then the eye's of both people on the statue flashed a glow, and a quick burst of air that blasted Sokka against another statue.

"See?!" Katara said,

"Stupid statue." Sokka grumbled, rubbing his arm.

"Who is that?" Zuko said, looking at the girl the statue had formed. "And why is she part of the avatar statue? I thought Aang was supposed to be the avatar."

"He's got a point guys. You think TwinkleToes is hiding something?" Toph said.

"I'm sure he knows just as much as us." Katara said.

"Well I don't like any of this!" Sokka said randomly.

Everyone looked at him, and then Toph said "Look guys, how about we just get some sleep. That's what I'm doing."

"Toph's actually right for once! I think we all just need some sleep." Katara said.

I glared at her for a minute before we all went to our separate rooms and slept for the night.

In the morning I grabbed a fruit from the kitchen before heading down to the room of statues. When I got there, I realized there was already someone there. When I got further into the room I recognized it to be Katara. I simply said "Hey."

"Oh, hi Toph." Katara responded. "I'm kinda worried about Aang."

"Honestly, I was kinda hoping the statue was gonna be back to normal, too." Toph admitted.

Katara, in response to this, made a surprised face.

"What?" Toph asked.

"Well that was the most emotional thing you've said for a few weeks now." Katara answered.

"Yeah, well don't get used to it." Toph said.

Katara laughed a bit before wearing a serious and worried expression and saying "But seriously, you think he's ok? I mean, if this statue is supposed to represent Aang, what is that supposed to mean?"

"Technically it's supposed to represent his spot in the avatar cycle. Just sayin." Toph said, leaning against a statue.

Then we suddenly heard a voice from behind us and we both gasped. "Does that mean this other girl could be a second avatar?"

We turned to see Zuko had just walked in. "But there can only be one avatar at a time. Wait, you don't think Aang's." But Katara couldn't finish, she just looked horrified.

"Don't be stupid, if that happened the statue wouldn't have changed, there'd just be a new one, anyway the next avatar's supposed to be a waterbender, right?" Zuko said.

"Right." Katara said, shaking her head. "Of course."

There was an awkward moment of silence as everyone thought about what the statue could mean.

"I wonder what's going on. You think he'll be ok?" Katara asked.

"Aang can take care of himself. If you'd forgotten or something he kinda saved the world last week, and discovered a new sub-element. I'm sure he can protect himself from a birthday visit." Zuko said irritably.

"Yeah, TwinkleToes can take care of himself." Toph said, punching Katara on the arm.

"Thanks guys, I'll just feel a lot better when he gets home to explain this." Katara said.

"How about we just go upstair and find something else to do. Sitting here worrying isn't gonna help anyone." Toph said.

"Good idea." Zuko said.

So the three of us did just that.

 **So, this is it. I know Elian and Aang weren't in this one, but I thought you might like to get a little insight on the other characters. I hope you liked it, and keep watch for chapter four! I would very much enjoy you're feedback, good or bad, so please review, and have a nice rest of your day!**


	4. Chapter 4: I'm how old

**Part four! I've been working hard on this, so please tell me how you think I could improve. Enjoy!**

I had spent the day with Aang and the king, and apparently it was Aang's birthday today. I'd spent the whole day thinking the king looks familiar, but I still can't put a pin on why. But anyway, the three of us had just gotten back to the palace. When we entered the earth kingdom palace there was an extravagant spread on a large table. "Woah." I said, staring at the food.

"Who's hungry?" The king said, smiling wildly.

"That looks great!" Aang said excitedly.

"Well?" The king said, holding out his arms.

After we all sat down, I turned to the king and said "I don't know what to say, just thanks, ya know? I didn't expect any of this. Especially after, ya know, earlier. I'm really sorry, sir. I'm just so confused."

I WAS so confused, and I wanted answers now more than ever. What was going on? Did I really have wings? Aang's the avatar? Then what happened to me? What ever happened to the other airbenders? How long was I actually frozen? Is any of this even real?

"I know this is really awkward to bring up again but, when did it happen?" I asked, turning to Aang.

"When did what happen?" Aang asked curiously.

"The… The airbenders." I said, looking down. "They're too strong to just have died out, something must have happened."

He and the king exchanged looks before he turned back to me and responded hesitantly "There's been a war."

"A war? How long?" I asked.

"The past… century." He responded, even more hesitant than the last time.

I just looked down. A hundred years. I've been frozen for a hundred years. Everyone and everything I knew was gone. "I can't believe it. I just… I can't believe it." I said.

Aang, who was sitting right beside me, put a hand on my shoulder and said "I'm really sorry, I wish I hadn't broken it to you that way."

I looked over at him and smiled, then said "The war, it's still going, right?"

"Well, no." Aang said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, ya know how I'm the avatar?" Aang said.

"Yeah." I said.

"Well, I ended up winning the final battle." Aang said, taking a bite.

I stopped in the middle of a bite and almost choked. "What?!" I said with my mouth full. I swallowed my bite and tried again. "Wait, so you just won a century long war? You say that like it's nothing!"

"Well," Aang said.

"I think you're too modest!" I said.

"Well, hey what was that anyway?" Aang said, changing the subject.

"What?" I asked.

"The wings." Aang responded.

"Honestly I don't know what any of this is." I answered.

"Nothing?" Aang asked.

"Nothing. I've never even heard of the wings.

To be honest, I was kinda embarrassed. No one had ever even heard of whatever that was, and now I'm off destroying people's stuff with it.

"I'm so sorry. I would never have done that normally, I'm uncontrollable!" I said to the king.

"It's not a big deal, right?" Aang asked the king.

"Well I'm not upset if that's what you're asking." The king answered.

"Not upset? How could you be not upset? I've completely destroyed that room, and-" But the king cut me off.

"I already said I'm not upset, and that's that." The king said.

"Thanks, but I still don't know what that was. I don't ever want that to happen again, I can't just go around destroying everything whenever I get upset." I said.

"It's not your fault." Aang said.

"Whether or not it's my fault doesn't say anything about how much it happens. And not everyone's so forgiving." I answered.

Then the king suddenly stood up and walked off saying "Follow me, I bet you're both tired."

We could both agree that we were tired, so we got up and followed him. He led us to a room with two beds in it, on opposite sides of the room from each other. The king smiled and walked off, closing the door behind him. I took the bed on the left, and Aang took the one on the right. We both sat down on the edges of our beds and I looked down, sighing deeply.

"We can look into it some more. That looked a lot like the avatar state, maybe I could help." Aang said.

"That's what the avatar state looks like?" I said.

"Yup, pretty much, just without the wings." Aang said.

"I wonder if it feels the same." I thought aloud.

"Well what did it feel like?" Aang asked.

'I'll probably sound insane.' I thought. 'But ok, if you really wanna hear it.'

I took a deep breath and started. "Well, it was terrifying. I was so powerful, and I couldn't control myself. I had no Idea what I was gonna do next, I could of seriously hurt one you. Mostly, I was just scared of what I was gonna do next, because I could of done anything. I don't know, it was like I turned on. Like I turned on, and got power. It was like energy just surged through me." Then, noticing the strange face Aang was making, I stopped for a second and said "Sorry, I'm just ranting about it now."

"No, that's just… that's exactly how I would explain the avatar state." Aang said.

"Really?" I asked. "Wow, you don't think…"

I looked across the room at his bed, and he looked just as deep in thought as I was.

"Couldn't be. But it sure was something and, whatever it was, it looked just like it. And apparently felt just like it, too." Aang said.

"But that's impossible." I said.

"That's what we would of said about the wings." Aang pointed out.

OK, I had to tell him. It was nagging on me and I had to tell someone. I couldn't hold it back anymore.

"I have a confession to make." I said.

"Huh?" Aang asked, probably wondering what else I could hide.

"I had a vision, two actually, when I was in the ice. You look just like him, and you're the avatar." I said.

"Tell me." He said.

"OK." I said, taking a deep breath.

So I told him about the visions, both of them, and everything that happened in them.

"Woah." He said, holding his head and shaking it.

"What?" I asked, desperate to learn anything I could.

"Those are like my memories, I remember that. Why would you have had visions about it?" He asked.

"That's just it, I don't know! But I have one question. If you were frozen like in my visions, how long were you frozen. I can't believe I was frozen for a century. At least I don't look about 113!" I said.

"I was frozen for a century, too. I didn't know about the war until earlier this year, when I actually got out of the ice. Wow, I never thought I'd find someone else my age after being frozen for a century!" He said.

"You were frozen for a century too?! Wait, you're 113 too?! Well, I found the ultimate coincidence!" I said.

We both laughed and then we both let out a big yawn at the same time. We laughed again and then I said "Looks like we could use some rest!"

"Yeah, looks like!" Aang said.

And within ten minutes we were both asleep.

 **I know this one isn't super exciting and nothing terribly interesting really happens, but I promise the next one will be more exciting. Please review, I want to know what you think. I mean, there's no point in writing all these chapters and putting them online if no one really likes them, so please tell me what you do and don't like about it so I know whether to keep posting as frequently. Bye!**


	5. Chapter 5: Time to find

**Still reading, uh? Well, if so, I can't be doing THAT bad. Well, I hope you like it and stuff. Enjoy!**

When I woke up, Aang was still asleep. Our conversation from last night was playing through my head. 'That's what we thought about the wings.' Could any of it really be possible? I'd only been in this new world for a day now, but it felt like it had been a whole month. I looked around and there was a shoulder bag on each of the side tables by our beds. I got off the bed and opened mine and there was a note in it. I looked over and there was a note sticking out of the bag on Aang's table, too. I airbent his covers off of him and they fell ontop of his head as he shot straight up. "Agh! I'm awake!" He shouted.

"Morning!" I said cheerfully. "Look at the bags, they both have notes in them!"

"Huh?" Aang said as he pulled the covers off his head.

"They left us bags, on the tables, and they both have notes in them!" I said happily. "Here, listen to this."

Then I read off the note. "Look around, if you please, and find these little things for me. Keep on searching, till the last look, where you will find a type of book. Make sure to keep the things you've found, whether underground or in the clouds. Search and search and don't slow down, save all you're time to win the round. You have until the sun goes down. Clue One: A set of challenges you've long been through, find the arena and luck is on you."

"It's a scavenger hunt!" Aang said excitedly.

"What do you think the first clue means?" I asked.

"Don't know. What did it say again?" Aang said.

"Right here. Clue One, a set of challenges you've long been through, find the arena and luck is on you." I said. "A set of challenges you've long been through, sound familiar?"

Aang thought about it for a minute before a sudden realization seemed to hit him. "Aha! I think I know where to look." He said.

We both got up and Aang led me down some long halls until he suddenly stopped me in front of a door. "Here." He said, opening the door. "We have to go through all of these."

The door led to a short hall which we went through, finding ourselves on a small ledge overlooking a cavernous room . The top and bottom of this room was covered in stalactites and stalagmites, and a giant waterfall ran through the middle of it. "We have to get through how many of these, now?" I asked, looking at the stalagmites that reached perfectly sharp points.

"Only three, and actually they were made to be dangerous." Aang said.

"What do you mean, they were made to be dangerous?" I asked.

"Well, it's a long story but, the king is actually an old friend of mine and he set this all up for me. They were made to be dangerous because they challenges. Three of em, each harder than the last. You had to really think to get through them. This one I had to get a key from the waterfall, the next I had to get his pet, and the last I actually had to fight him!" Aang said.

"Well that doesn't seem fair, he's like a gazillion years old!" I said.

"Oh no, he might even be the most powerful earthbender in the world! And he could outsmart anyone!" Aang said.

"You seem to be pretty good friends, how long have you known each other?" I asked.

"As long as I can remember, actually." Aang said.

"What's his name, anyway, the king?" I asked.

"Oh, it's Bumi. His name is Bumi." Aang said.

"Bumi?!" I said. "It can't be the same one." I added to myself.

"You knew Bumi, too?" Aang asked.

"It all makes sense, I just can't believe he's still alive. That must be why he looked so familiar earlier." I said.

"You sure it's the same Bumi, though?" Aang asked.

"How many Bumi's do you honestly know?" I said.

"Got a point." He said.

"I can't believe it!" I said excitedly.

Me and Bumi had been friends sense my first visit to Omashu. "See ya!" I said suddenly, jumping the stalagmites one by one.

"Hey, wait for me!" Aang shouted, following closely behind.

"I was right behind you!" Aang said.

"Well let's go to the next room, that was easy!" I said.

Aang nodded and we both moved on to the next room. As we entered the next room, I could see why Aang would have found Bumi's pet in it. The section we were in had straw covering the bottom and huge pet toys. I couldn't find out what would be challenging about this room. "Um, what exactly are we supposed to do?" I asked.

"Not sure." Aang said. "Let's just head to the other end."

So we did just that. But before we could get through the doorway, a wall of earth shot up and blocked it. "Should of seen that coming. Have any other Ideas?" I said.

"I'm blank." He said.

"We need another exit." I said. "Oh, I've got an Idea, there was a piece back there that looked like a tree. It had a big hole in it, let's see where it leads."

"Worth a shot." He said.

So we went back, found the tree piece, and entered it. It was a long hallway and took us a minute to get through. When we left the other side, we entered arena like area on the seating row. "Is this it?" I asked. "The arena?"

"Yup." Aang said happily.

We both jumped down and looked around the arena. In the middle there was a raised platform housing two bags, each with a note sticking out of the top, and we started walking towards it. "This is too easy." I said uncomfortably.

"Yeah." Aang said.

Then, when we were almost there, two pillars of earth shot up and sent us flying. We landed a few feet from each other. We looked at each other and sighed, getting up. "That's what I thought." I said. "I've got an idea, but you'll have to just trust me, ok?" I said.

"Got it." Aang said.

"Follow me." I said, running around the edge of the arena.

Aang seemed to read my mind and automatically copied me on the other side. We past each other in the back, circled back around to the front, and turned heading straight for the middle. We got closer and, once again, the pillars shot up a headed straight for us. We were on a collision course, just as I wanted. "We're gonna crash!" Aang shouted.

"I know what I'm doing." I said. "Just jump when I say, ok?"

We got closer and closer and another second and we'd be flying again. "NOW!" I shouted.

Me and Aang jumped at the same time. Then we both did a flip in the air and landed on the middle platform in perfect sync. We looked at each other, smiling widely. "That was awesome!" Aang shouted.

"I know, that looked so much better than it did in my head!" Then we both looked down at the bags and picked them up. We opened them and both pulled out identical necklaces. The necklaces had each a brown string and a circular charm that wore the air symbol. "This is just like like the one that broke a few days ago." Aang said happily, putting on his necklace.

I smiled at the necklace and put it on. "So what's the next note say?" I asked.

Aang took out his note and read it. "Congratulations on what you've found, now find the next clue before the alarm can sound. Clue Two: Find the place where a temple abounds, soar through the air and follow the clouds. Find the grounds, the highest in town, where peace and relaxation can be found."

"That one's a little more complicated. Obviously it's somewhere high, and peaceful. What did it mean, 'follow the clouds'?" I said.

"Not sure." Aang said. "But, whatever it means, I doubt it wants us down here."

"Yeah." I said.

So we headed upstairs and found our way outside through a side door somewhere. I looked around and was surprised at how late it was. It had to be at least a half hour past noon, and we'd only just finished the first riddle challenge. "That doesn't look very good." I said, looking at the sky.

"Yeah, we'd better hurry. How many of these do you think there'll be anyway?" Aang asked.

"Good question. I hope there aren't too many, though. We only have until sunset." I said.

"Let's not waste any time, then." Aang said.

"Ok, so we know it's somewhere high," I said.

"And peaceful," Aang said.

"Might have something to do with clouds," I continued.

"And it's a temple." Aang finished.

We thought for a minute before shouting in unison "The Peak!"

The Peak was a temple on the highest point in Omashu. Next to Omashu, actually. Technically it wasn't connected to Omashu, but was considered an Omashu monument either way.

"Should I call Appa?" Aang asked.

"Course not, we'll fly, just like the note said. You have a glider, right?" I said.

"Of course!" Aang said, holding his glider forward. "What about you?"

"I have one, if that's what you're asking." I said.

Then I reached into a pocket on my outfit and pulled out a perfectly smooth stick about a four the length of my arm.

"Is that you're glider?" Aang asked.

"Yeah, I'll show you how it works." I said.

Then, turning it over, I pointed out two holes in the stick. "See these holes?" I asked. "Well, sense the ends are blocked up, I just airbend into the holes, and-"

Then I airbent into the two holes and the stick popped out to a full length glider, which opened up, ready to fly. "Ta-da!" I said, holding up the glider.

"Whoa!" Aang said, amazed, while he examined the glider. "That's amazing!"

"Well, you have a lot of extra time living on an island in the middle of nowhere." I said. "Let's go, we're losing time."

Aang popped out his glider and we flew off. We got as high as we could, a nice ways above Omashu palace, and looked around. We flew in slow, large circles, flying in opposite directions. "Let's try this way." I said, following the direction the clouds were going in.

"Coming." Aang said, Turing to follow me.

We searched for about twenty more minutes, then I spotted something strange in the clouds. A wide, circular cloud formation spinning in a perfect circle, whereas all the clouds around it were moving normally. It seemed to be surrounding the top of something. "Hey, let's see if there's somewhere to land over there." I said, jerking my head in the direction of the formation. "Looks promising."

"Works for me." Aang said.

We flew into the cloud formation and, like I had guessed, it was circling overtop something. The something just happened to be a temple. With nothing higher, a bit off the edge of Omashu mountain. The peak, it had to be. We landed, breathing heavily. It wasn't easy to fly for that long, to use airbending that long nonstop. Gasping, I looked over at Aang, who also looked tired from the flight. "I'll- be there in- just a minute." I said through gasps.

"You ok?" He asked, laughing a bit.

"Yeah, usually I don't get so tired this easily. I guess being frozen for a hundred years tires you out." I said comically, still breathing a bit heavily. "Ok, let's go."

"So where should we try first?" Aang asked.

"Let's try around back." I said.

The mountain peak was so high up it was covered in a nice layer of snow. And it was pretty windy too, but either way it still this peaceful air about it. I didn't think anything could ruin it. That is, until we got to the back. We rounded a corner and walked behind the temple. The first thing I noticed was a wooden frame filled with bright orange curtains. We pushed passed the curtains and entered the framed area. It, like everything else, was covered in snow. Also, it had fire nation looking helmets scattered across the ground. I looked over at Aang and was surprised to see that he looked to be under distress. He was kinda in this trance and he looked like he was about to cry. "You ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah." He said, wiping his eyes. "This… is where I found out about the airbenders."

"Here?" I asked.

"Well, not here here, this is just a model, but." He explained.

"Oh." I said quietly. "Well let's just get the next clue and get out of here."

"Yeah." Aang said, brightening up a bit at the thought of leaving.

We looked over at the two bags in the snow on the other side of the framed area, walked up to the bags, and picked them up. We then opened the bags and looked inside them. They each had a note, a fruit, and some other miscellaneous foods, obviously nothing meat though. "Nice, perfect timing." I said.

It had gotten really late, but we had finally finished the last riddle challenge. There were nine of them in total with the prizes varying from snacks to random trinkets. But this was the special prize. This time it was just one big bag, but we hadn't it yet, we were saving it for last. We were standing on an island in Omashu covered with Koala-Sheep.

"-and meet me back where it all started." Aang finished.

"It must mean the palace!" I said. "But first let's open this bag, I've got to see what's in it."

"Definitely!" Aang said.

And we both opened the bag, revealing a scroll. We took it out and spread it out across the ground, taking a look at what the scroll holds. It was head to toe covered in complicated bending moves of all nations, including air. "Whoa!" Me and Aang shouted in unison.

"That looks amazing!" I said. "But we've got to get back, the sun is almost set."

"Yikes!" Aang said, looking up. "Let's go, I'll call Appa."

And fifteen minutes later we were landing in front of the palace. "Thanks, buddy!" Aang shouted, as we rushed up the steps.

The guards opened the doors and let us in before we could even stop running. "Thanks!" I shouted behind me as the doors closed.

We stopped and looked around the room expecting to see Bumi, but instead we saw an empty room. "What?" Aang asked. "Where is he?"

"I don't-" I stuttered. But then I got it. "Wait, it didn't start here, it started back in the room! 'Meet me back where it all started'!"

"Well let's go then!" Aang said.

And we were off again, running through the halls, until we reached the bedroom we woke up in, and burst through the doors. And there was Bumi, in the flesh, sitting on a chair. "So, did you get it?" He asked.

"Bumi, you're a mad genius!" I said.

Then I ran up and gave him a hug. "It's been a while, Elian." He said.

And in a few minutes Bumi left and we were both asleep on our separate beds within the minute. I can't believe Bumi survived this long. Although, of all the people, he would be the one to survive through a century long war.

 **So, what do you think of this one? I know it's super long, whereas the other's are pretty short, but I didn't think that'd too much of a problem. Was this one exciting enough? Don't worry, it gets more exciting, I promise. I'm pretty sure they're going home tomorrow, so the others won't have to wait too much longer. Bye!**


	6. Chapter 6: Home at last

**Welcome to part six of my fanfic! I'm SO sorry it took so long to put out is chapter. I just haven't had to time to go through this chapter and do all the proofreading. But it's finally finished, so here it is for you.**

I was sitting on a ledge by one of the mail chute sending ports, with my arms wrapped around legs. It was about mid-day and the sun was bright in the sky. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Aang. "You OK?" Aang asked.

"I don't know." I answered. "I've just got a lot on my mind, I guess."

"Yeah, I know what you mean" Aang said.

I sighed and looked back down, still clutching my legs close to my body. "I don't get it." I said, almost to myself.

I had been thinking about the wings. I just couldn't wrap my head around it all. "Don't get what?" Aang asked.

"Well I don't get any of this, but mainly it's the wings I've been thinking about." I responded.

"Oh." Aang said. "We'll figure it out."

"Yeah, eventually. But that doesn't help right now. What if that happens again? What if that happens again, and I hurt someone?" I asked, shaking my head.

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Aang said reassuringly. "It'll take a lot of work, but you'll learn to control it, I know you will."

"Thanks Aang." I said.

Then I heard someone walk up behind us and turned to see Bumi standing there. "Looks like you'll be leaving soon." He said.

"Yeah." I said. "But first I wanna do one more thing before we go."

And in a second we were racing down the mail chutes, Bumi in one cart, Aang and me in the other. (There wasn't enough room in one cart for all three of us.) We raced down the mail chutes with increasing speed and landed at the bottom with a crash, all of us laughing. When we had finished laughing, Bumi turned to us and looked up. "You should be on your way." He suggested. "You're friends will get worried if you stay any longer."

Aang slapped a hand to his forehead. "I completely forgot! I told them I was gonna be back yesterday! We gotta go, now."

"Well let's go then!" I said

Aang called Appa and I called Tiki and Cosmo. We both got on the bison and Cosmo sat on my lap, wrapping his tail around my arm. "Yip-yip!" Me and Aang shouted together.

"It was nice seeing you again, Bumi!" I shouted over my shoulder while Aang waved.

It had been about fifteen minutes before I decided to strike up a conversation. "So where are we going exactly?" I asked.

"Oh, the palace. The royal palace in the fire nation." He answered.

"Is the water girl there?" I asked, thinking of the water-tribe girl from my visions.

"Oh yeah, that's Katara, she's a waterbender. And the other one was Sokka, he's there too, but he doesn't bend. Oh, and then we have Toph, she's an earthbender, and Zuko, a firebender." Aang explained.

"So five of you altogether, right?" I asked.

"Yup!" He answered.

"So how'd you meet the other two? Toph and the firebender?" I asked.

"Well Toph we met at a battle arena and she ended up joining our team. Zuko's a bit of a long story." Aang responded.

"Well, we've got plenty of time." I said, leaning back.

"OK, so we first met him at the south pole where I woke up-" Aang started.

It took a nice few hours for Aang to explain everything he knew about Zuko, some stuff about Toph, and a few stories of their adventures. When he finally finished though, I was sitting straight up. "Sounds like Zuko had a tough life." I said.

"Yeah." Aang said.

"It almost makes you feel worse for him than you, when he was chasing you. He was trying at a lost cause, and he had to know it." I said.

"He found his way though." Aang responded.

I could see pride glowing on Aang's face. He really thought of these people as family. He really loved them, huh? "So how did you meet the avatar before you, again? Roku?" I asked.

"That'll have to wait, we're here." Aang said

As we flew over a mountain an enormous palace came into view. "Woah!" I exclaimed.

It was humongous, with amazing gardens, and beautiful, skillful coloring, with a shape unique to most fire nation architecture. We landed in a side area with straw lining the bottom, and got off the bison. I looked up. It was just breaking evening, and there was a slight breeze. We walked across the clearing, up to the doors, and I entered the hallway behind Aang. "Guys, I'm back!" Aang called out.

There was no answer. He called out again. "Hello? I'm back guys!"

For a few minutes there was, again, no answer as we continued to walk down the hall. Then there were footsteps and Katara ran around the corner. "Aang!" She shouted.

She ran up to him with tears in her eyes and gave him a hug. "Never do that again!" She told him. "I was so worried!"

"Sorry I took so long." Aang apologized.

That's when Katara looked over and noticed me. Right away her face went completely blank. Just then the other three, Zuko Sokka and Toph, ran around the corner and, noticing me, gave the same blank expressions as Katara. It almost seemed like they knew me somehow. "Um…" I said slowly.

'That's awkward.' I thought. I stood there and looked down while I continued to get weird looks. "This is Elian." Aang said, clearly noticing the awkwardness. "I met her the morning after I left."

"OK, I'll explain everything I can, but can we go outside or something first?" I asked nervously.

I just now noticed how alike my and Aang's voices are. If you couldn't see us, you couldn't tell who was who by voice. I was shaken out of my thoughts when a voice, sounded like Aang, spoke. "Yeah, good idea."

So the others followed me and Aang outside, back to the straw covered area with Tiki and Appa. "I'm nervous now." I whispered to Aang as we walked out.

"You'll do fine." He whispered back as we all found a place to sit down in the straw.

"OK, I know what you're first question is gonna be. Obviously you'd ask who I was, right?" I started. "Well I'm not sure if I can even answer that myself. _I_ don't even know who I am. But I can tell you what I do know, OK? So, it's hard to explain but, long story short, I got frozen. "

"Wait, frozen?" Katara asked, looking at Aang.

"Yes, frozen." I answered before continuing. "But anyway, next thing I know, I wake up with Aang and Appa standing there" I said, gesturing to Aang.

I ended up explaining everything to them in small detail. I didn't describe our conversation, I didn't describe in much detail the event with the wings, and all I said about the scavenger hunt was that Bumi set it up, and that Bumi ended up being a good friend of mine, just like Aang. By the time I finished explaining everything I'd gotten enough weird looks to last a lifetime. But then, when I was about to say something else, we all heard a loud yet very soft groan from behind us, and everyone turned around. We all turned to see Appa eating some straw and Tiki, who was a little bit smaller than Appa and had dark brown accents. "Oh, wow!" Katara said, standing up and walking over to Tiki. "Who's this?" She asked.

Just then Cosmo flew in and sat on my shoulder, resting his head on mine. "Guys, meet my friends. Tiki, and Cosmo." I said, gesturing first to the female sky-bison, then to the Lemur-bat resting on my head.

"They're gorgeous." Katara said, petting Tiki on the side of her head.

"They're pretty great, huh?" I asked. Then, bringing my mind back to more serious matters, I turned to Toph and asked the question that had been nagging at me for a while now. "So, did something happen or something? After Aang left?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and, they were all standing at this point, turned to look at me. "Oh, yeah." Toph said. "You're not the only one who saw something weird in the past few days."

The other three, Sokka Zuko and Katara, exchanged looks with each other, then looked back at me and Aang. "What?" I asked.

"You'll have to see it for yourself." Katara said. "You won't believe it otherwise."

Me and Aang exchanged looks, then followed the others inside and down the hall. We had walked for about five minutes when they stopped us in front of a doorway. They all gave us odd looks, then walked into the room in front of us. We went in and looked around. All I saw were statues of people. Tons of them. "OK, they're all avatar's." Aang pointed out, not getting what was so weird about this room.

"Take a look at yours, TwinkleToes. " Toph said.

'TwinkleToes? That was her name for him?' I thought. Then, curious, I looked over to where she was pointing. It was Aang's statue alright, but you wouldn't believe it. It wasn't like any of the others because it didn't have just one person. It had two. Aang and another airbender, Aang and me. I was so confused. 'But I'm not the avatar.' I thought. 'I've never been.'

Me and Aang exchanged meaningful looks, both of us obviously thinking of our conversation from the night after the event with the wings. "You don't think…?" Aang asked.

"Couldn't be." I answered.

"But…" Aang continued.

"That's what we would've said about the wings. " I finished.

Then I heard someone laughing and me and Aang turned around and said in perfect unison "What?"

That caused them all to laugh, except for Zuko who merely smiled. "I'm confused though, if all of these are avatar's, what happened to that statue?" I asked, gesturing towards the statue of me and Aang.

"That's the thing," Sokka said. "We don't know."

"We were hoping you would be able to explain something." Katara said to Aang.

Then I looked back at the statue, and looked at the big, cheesy grins that were formed out of stone on my and Aang's faces. "Do I really look like that when I smile?" Me and Aang said in unison.

We both burst out laughing and everyone joined in, even Zuko laughed a little. "Is this gonna happen all the time?" Toph asked.

Then me and Aang, again, talked at exactly the same time. "Probably." We said.

Everyone laughed again, including Zuko, and I knew I was gonna get along with this group. But I had to bring my mind back to more serious matters. "So what is that supposed to mean, huh?" I asked, looking at the hundreds of avatar statues.

"Are you sure these are all avatar's?" I asked it, but I already knew the answer.

"Yup, these are avatar's alright." Aang answered.

"Yeah, we definitely have a lot to figure out, but I vote we figure out I'm the morning, I'm exhausted. " I said, suppressing a yawn.

"Yeah, I'm tired too." Aang said.

"Good idea." Toph added.

"Um, I think there's a room down Aang's hall you can take." Zuko said awkwardly as we all started walking.

"Thanks." I responded.

In a few minutes we got to a point where the halls split into four halls other than the one we were currently in. The other four split down the halls, Katara and Sokka going down the same one, but I didn't know where I was supposed to go. I slowed down and stopped in the middle of where the halls split. "Over here!" Aang called, standing by the hall farthest to the left.

I smiled and walked over to Aang, joining him down the hall. "It doesn't feel right." I said as we stopped in front of the first door in the hallway.

"What doesn't?" Aang asked.

"I don't know, it just doesn't feel right." I answered uncomfortably. "Like something's gonna happen. Like it's not safe."

"Hmm" Aang said, thinking. "Well, how about we figure stuff out tomorrow. Like you said, I'm exhausted."

"Yeah." I said uncomfortably. "Cosmo!" A second after I called, Cosmo came rushing down the hall and sat on my shoulder.

"Night." I said to Aang, pushing open my door.

I was honestly too tired to look around the room or anything, I just found the bed and collapsed on it. I wonder what will happen? I am glad, though, that, whatever I go through, I'll have Aang to watch my back. I just really felt like I could trust him, and not because he's the avatar. He was different, I could tell.

 **Once again, I am very sorry it took me so long to update this. But, that was it for this chapter. I would love to hear what you thought about it, so please review. Until next time!**


	7. Chapter 7: Home, flaming home

**Welcome back again! Well, let's just jump right into it this time, huh?**

To be honest, I wasn't really that tired last night. I was really just overwhelmed a bit. But I couldn't tell them that, not even Aang. What would they think if, right after they met me, I just snapped? I just had to get away. I needed some rest to clear my head a bit. But I wasn't lying about that feeling I got. It definitely didn't feel right. Like something was gonna happen. But that was yesterday, now it's morning. In fact, I should probably get up and go find the others. I opened my eyes and looked around. At first I thought it was all a dream, but no. Everything was real. Before my eyes was fire, everywhere. And smoke, I could hardly breath there was so much of it. And I couldn't see more than ten feet in front of my face. My heart raced as I sat up, coughing against the smoke. Remebering something, I gasped, but I immediately regretted it. My mouth and throat filled with smoke and bent over, coughing. The thought came back to me, and I patted the blankets, feeling for something. When I didn't find what, or more who, I was looking for, I called him. "Cosmo!" A second after, the blankets shifted and Cosmo popped out his head.

"Go! Get outside!" I told him, pointing to the door.

He got up and ran out the door. Then I got up and walked slowly and cautiously towards the door and entered the hall. I looked down the hall towards Aang's room, although I couldn't see anything, and heard a very loud crack. Then I saw a slight glowing through the smoke. But just as I was about to take a step, my eyes and tattoos flashed and wings, the same ones from the first indecent, sprouted from my back, building themselves out of thin air. "Wha-"I stuttered, coughing afterwards.

'That doesn't matter. I have make Aang's OK.' I thought, shaking my head. So I walked slowly over to Aang's room, and walked through the flaming doorway. Aang was lying on a bed, in the avatar state, surrounded by a large bubble of air. I cautiously reach out my hand towards the protective bubble. As soon as my hand touched the air-bubble, it disappeared, Aang left the avatar state, and my wings faded with a quick breeze. I covered my mouth, I knew not to gasp this time, and temporarily brought my hand back. I leaned over the mattress and shook Aang as hard as I could. He didn't move, he didn't even twitch, but I didn't have time to stay here. I grabbed him and put one of his arms around my shoulders, then left the room as quick as I could. He was really light, actually, but he seemed like the heaviest thing I've ever carried as his motionless figure dragged lifelessly along behind me. 'He'll be fine.' I thought to myself, stareing straight ahead. I got to the end of the hall and entered the room that split into multiple hallways. The others ran out of their separate hallways and all looked at me and Aang. "Is he OK?" Katara asked with a worried expression on her face.

"What happened?" Toph asked.

"There's no time to explain, what's the quickest way out of here?" I asked hurriedly.

"Follow me." Zuko said, heading down a hallway.

We all followed him in a run until we reach a doorway and exited the building. We kept going across across the clearing we had just entered, but it felt too easy. I looked behind me and found about five guys running after us. "Guys, we're being followed!" I shouted ahead of me.

They were wearing uniforms with the fire nation insignia on them, and solid white masks.

Everyone immediately looked behind us and all spotted our pursuers at once. I looked straight ahead of me and tried to go as fast as I court, but seeing as I was carrying Aang along with me, that wasn't too fast. I couldn't hear anything but the crackling of the fire so I looked back, just in time to see one of the masked men give Zuko multiple jabs in the back. Zuko blasted the man back and then fell to all fours. He wasn't getting back up, but it didn't seem like he could. "Katara! Take Aang!" I shouted ahead of me.

Katara immediately ran back and took Aang from me, putting one of his arms around her shoulders so she could carry him. I ran back and held my hand out to Zuko. "I'm fine." He said defiantly.

Then he tried to swat my hand away, but when he made to move his arm, he fell with a grunt. "C'mon, let me help you." I told him urgently, still holding my hand out.

"I told you, I'm fine!" He said loudly, trying and failing again to get up.

The masked men were getting too close. "We don't have time for this!" I'm shouted.

I grabbed his right arm and put it around my shoulders, hoisting him upright, and walked slowly forward. "Appa! Tiki!" I called.

A few seconds later both bison flew in and landed on the opposite side of the clearing from the doorway behind us. The others got on Appa, and I airbent myself and Zuko onto Tiki's head. "Yip-yip!" I shouted.

And the bison took off. Cosmo was already on Tiki. And another lemur, who looked just like Cosmo with short fur and white as the main color, was sitting on Aang with his head tilted to one side. "What did they do to me?" Zuko asked.

He pulled his arm back and thrust it forward, but nothing happened. "Urgh!" He shouted in frustration. "How did they do that? I thought only Tylee could do that!"

"Well, I guess anyone could do it if they knew enough." Katara thought aloud.

I was about to ask who Tylee's was when Sokka spoke up. "Guys? What happened to Aang?" He asked.

"I'm not sure." I said worriedly. "He was like that when I found him."

"So how are we supposed to fix him?" Toph asked.

"I don't know." I answered.

After a moment of silence as everyone wondered what to do about Aang, I finally brought up what I'd been fearing I'd have to do since I saw Aang like that. "It looks like he's got smoke in his lungs. Well, I might have an idea, but we'll need to find a town, or a spot to land for a few days. If he's got smoke in his lungs, he shouldn't be this high up anyway." I told them.

They all nodded and agreed silently, except for Zuko. In looked around to see what he was doing, and spotted him looking back at the burning palace with misty eyes. I felt bad for Zuko, though. I mean, he's been dreaming of coming back here and finally being able to return home, but when he finally does it's burned to the ground. As the burning palace got just out of eye shot, a single tear slid down Zuko's cheek.

 **And...done! Sorry this chapter's so short, but that's all you're gettin for now! Bye!**


	8. Chapter 8: Do I know you

**Hey everyone! Welcome back! Well, this chapter might be a bit long, so let's get started.**

It had been a long flight, but luckily it was about to come to an end. I was watching for a place to land when I spotted something. It was a ravine like area with a waterfall on one side and a stream running through it. Something was calling me to land there. It felt like we had to land there. Like something was gonna happen if we landed there. "Let's land down there." I said, pointing to the area.

Sokka, who was holding the reigns on Appa, looked over at me and nodded in agreement before flicking the reigns. Both bison flew downwards and landed in the ravine.

Me and Katara were both carrying Aang, we each had one arm so we could carry him better. We brought Aang over to a stream and laid him down beside it. I gulped nervously and looked over at Katara as if to ask 'are you sure?'. "You'll do fine." Katara assured.

"But I've never done this move before." I told her. "And if I get this wrong, he could die."

"But we know he'll die if you don't even try it." Katara pleaded.

She had a valid point. If I don't try, he's dieing. If I do try, he might die. I've got one chance, and it's pretty slim, but it's one chance or nothing. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then nodded at Katara. Katara backed away a bit, and I knelt down in front of Aang. Taking another deep breath, I set my hands at the ready. Then I started moving my hands back and forth over Aang. I could feel the smoke, feel how much there was of it. His lungs were completely filled with it. This was definitely going to be difficult. But, like Katara said, there was no chance if I didn't even try. So I held my breath and focused everything I had on the energy in and around Aang. I focused solely on the smoke, and began twisting it, shaping it, moving it. I slowly and cautiously eased the smoke out of his lungs, through his throat, and finally out of his mouth. I watched desperately as Aang lay there. Then, to my complete relief, Aang stirred and shifted, then slowly opened his eyes. I let out the breath I'd been holding, and joy filled me as I shouted "Katara! Katara, I did it!"

Everyone immediately rushed over. Aang looked around and smiled at the sight of all of his friends surrounding him, then his smile faded. "Where am I?" He asked, sitting up.

…..

"-so we ended up here." I finished.

I had told Aang everything since last night, up to the point when we landed here. "But wait, how did you get the smoke out?" Aang asked, looking down at his chest.

"Well, I used airbending." I answered.

Aang's eyes widened with a sudden realization, and his mouth hung agape. "You have got to be kidding me!" He said excitedly.

"Not kidding." I answered.

"But no one can do that!" Aang said excitedly. "Where did you learn it?"

"Well, I'd actually never done it before." I confessed. "So I didn't know I even could. But it worked! "

"That's amazing!" Aang exclaimed.

"Umm, excuse me but, what's amazing?" Toph asked.

"That move she did is." Aang explained. "It's a very complicated move, and only the greatest of masters can actually perform it successfully."

"But, I don't get it." Katara said. "I did the same thing for you with waterbending."

"Yeah, but that's with waterbending. This is airbending." Aang explained.

"So…" Sokka said, gesturing for Aang to continue.

So Aang explained further. "With airbending you have access to all the air in the body. So, one wrong move, even just the wrong focus, and whoever's performing the move could drain every bit of air in the body, and suffocate their patient in under a second. "

"That's why I was so worried about trying it." I told Katara.

"Wow." Was all Katara could say in response.

Then I spotted something from the corner of my eye, sitting against the side of a large rock. I looked closer and found that it was a mask, a white mask. Just like the one's the masked men from the palace were wearing. I got up and walked over to the mask, then picked it up. "Hey guys, you might want to see this." I told them, holding the mask out.

Everyone got up and came over. "Were they ambushed?" Zuko asked.

"No, there's no sign of a struggle. They left it for us to find. They want us to know they're watching us." Sokka concluded, inspecting the area around the rock.

"Well, that's creepy." Katara said.

"Yeah. Way to go, you've officially been dubbed not friendly." Toph said sarcastically.

"Hey guys, I think I saw a village not too far from here." I told them. "I'm gonna go and get us something to eat."

And I walked off. In a minute I heard a voice behind me. "Wait!" It said.

I turned around to see Aang run up to me. "I'm coming too." He said.

I was kinda worried about him still, though. "Are you sure?" I asked.

"I'm fine." He answered. "Thanks to you." He added gratefully.

As we neared the edge of the village, I got the strangest feeling that we were being watched. I looked around, but when I saw nothing I pushed the feeling to the back of my mind and kept on walking. Then we entered the village and found a food stall. After choosing some foods, I paid and we made to leave the village. Before we got out of the village, though, we spotted a kid that looks about eleven to thirteen, wearing long sleeves that cover a little bit past his arms, getting pushed roughly back from a stall. We walked over to the commotion to hear a the stall attendant yelling at the pre-teen. "If you don't have anything, get away from my stall!" He bellowed.

The fire nation boy stood up and brushed himself off before hanging his head and walking off. "Sorry for wasting your time." He muttered.

I ran over and looked down at the counter of the stall. There were two fruits sitting side by side on the counter. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a silver piece and a copper piece and held them out to the attendant. He took the money and nodded at me. I grabbed the fruits and me and Aang ran up to the boy. "Wait!" I shouted.

He stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Here." I said, holding out the fruits.

He took the two fruits, surprised. Then, studying my and Aang's smiles, his surprise seemed to grow. "It's an honor to meet you." He said, putting his hands together and bowing. "Hey, would you be able to spare some of your time? I know my dad would really like to meet you."

Me and Aang looked at each other and I nodded. "I don't see why not." I answered.

A smile across his face. "Follow me." He said.

Then he darted off down the street. Me and Aang followed behind him until he stopped in front of a house. "Wait here." He told us.

Then he rushed inside. In a second we heard hushed voices from inside the house. The first voice we heard sounded a lot like the boy, just lower and older. "Are you sure?" The first voice asked.

"It has to be dad, I know it." The boy responded.

"If it is, well, it just didn't seem like they were actually coming back." The father answered.

"I really think it's them." The boy answered.

"Well let them in then." The father answered.

Then we heard footsteps and the boy opened the door, urging us in. "I'm Kuzon, by the way." He told us.

'Kuzon?' I thought. I'd had a friend who's name was Kuzon before I was frozen. We walked into the house and looked around. It had a very relaxing and homey look to it. A man, Kuzon's dad no doubt, was sitting in a rocking chair. He stood up and walked over to us. He then studied us carefully until a sudden realization seemed to hit him. He looked at us lovingly as tears started to form in his eyes. But it seemed less like he saw a long lost loved one, and more like he just saw the impossible. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." The father answered. "Let me explain myself. But first may I ask you one question? What are your names? I'm Ryja."

The question surprised me. It seemed so important, then 'what are your names'. But, whatever, if he wanted our names, why not? "My names Elian, and that's Aang." I told him.

As soon as I said our names both of their faces showed joy and conformation, and wide smiles spread across them. "I knew it!" Kuzon shouted happily.

"So you really are the ones my father always spoke about." Ryja said. "The ones that disappeared. "

Me and Aang exchanged looks, then Ryja continued. "My father knew you in his early years. But one day, you just weren't there. My father went to the southern air temple where you were both raised, and the monks explained everything. My father would have been known to you as Kuzon. He lived a long life and died fighting against the fire nation warriors. I named my son after him for his bravery and courage. " At that point, he gestures to Kuzon. "He dedicated his whole life to stopping that war no matter what it took. My father was the bravest man I knew. And he would tell me endless stories of your adventures together."

I looked at him, then Kuzon, then him again. Then I looked over at Aang and noticed that he seemed kinda distant. "Aang?" I said.

Aang shook his head and looked over at me. "Sorry. Just thinking. You said we were both raised at the southern air temple, right?" Aang asked Ryja.

"That's what my father always told me." Ryja answered.

"Then how come we hadn't met each other before?" Aang asked me.

I forgot I'd never told him that. "Oh, well I didn't exactly grow up there. I just lived there until I was old enough to survive on my own. Then I decided to go live it free and I left. So we probably did meet each other a few times, we just wouldn't remember it. I didn't even train there. My airbending teacher came out to my island once a week, so I didn't exactly grow up at the temple. " I explained.

"Well that makes a lot more sense." Aang said. "But I wanna ask you something."

"Ask away." I told him.

"Well I was just wondering." Aang asked. "Who was your teacher?"

"Oh, my teacher?" I said. My airbending teacher, Gyotso, was like a father to me. He was my best friend, and he never came just to train me. He always told me how much he liked to visit me. "Gyotso. My teacher's name was Gyotso."

Aang's eyes filled with emotions and memories as soon as I said his name. "What is it?" I asked.

"Your teacher was Gyotso?" Aang asked.

"Yup, and he the best of the best." I said happily.

"Same here!" Aang said excitedly. "Gyotso taught me too!"

"I heard much about Monk Gyotso from my father. It seems that you were in good hands." Ryja said.

I nodded. "I'm really sorry but we have to go, it's getting late, and we have friends that we need to get back to." I said.

"I wish you could stay longer, buy if you really must leave, remember, you are always welcome here." Ryja told us.

"Thanks again." Kuzon said.

"It was nice meeting you." Me and Aang said, putting our hands together and bowing.

Then we left and started off towards the edge of the village. When we got to the edge, and had just walked past the last building, we heard a familiar voice from behind us. "Hey! H-Hey wait!" The voice said through gasping pants.

Me and Aang stopped and turned around to see Kuzon run up and stop in front of us. "I wanna come with you." He said.

Me and Aang exchanged surprised looks. "Please, I won't be in the way. And dad already agreed." He pleaded.

Me and Aang exchanged looks and decided in that second. We looked back at Kuzon and could plainly see the anticipation resting on his face. I smiled warmly at him and answered "We would be honored."

He smiled widely and relaxed his shoulders. "Oh, thank you guys, you won't regret it!" Kuzon answered excitedly.

About three minutes later, Kuzon spoke up. "Hey guys? Can I show you something?" He asked.

I nodded. "I don't show most people." He said. "But you're not most people."

Then he pulled back his left sleeve. His entire left arm was covered in a large, nasty scar. The scar gave his arm a strange, distorted, shriveled sort of look. "I got it three years ago." He said, letting his sleeve back down. "When I was nine."

By the way his eyes looked when he showed us, he wasn't bothered by the scar, in fact he seemed to wear it as a trophy. "What happened?" I asked.

"Well, in the fire nation when you turn nine, they take you off to the barracks to start training, so you can fight in the war later. But when they came to get me, I refused, I never wanted to fight in the war, unless I was fighting _against_ the fire nation army. Well, they sure didn't like that! This was my punishment." He said, holding up his arm. "You should'a seen their faces though! It was rich!"

"You're pretty brave you know." I told him, almost laughing at his last comment.

He just smiled back at me.

…..

When we got back to the ravine everyone was scattered randomly, doing their own things. As soon as we entered everyone looked our way. They all immediately became curious and came over. "Who's this?" Katara asked.

Kuzon didn't seem to want to talk. It just looked like he was shy. "Kuzon. This is Kuzon." I said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

…..

Me and Aang explained how we met Kuzon, and who he was. "So wait, you're the grandson of their best friend? " Sokka asked.

"Now that's just weird." Toph said.

"You got that right!" I said, laughing.

"Like we didn't already have a complicated team." Zuko said.

At this, we all laughed.

…..

Later that night, Zuko was sitting on a large rock outside of the ravine, looking off towards where the palace once stood. Or at least in the same direction. He had to get away for a minute, he needed some space to think. If only he hadn't spoken up that day. Then he would of lived his whole life at the palace. But there was no chance of that now. He could of lived his entire life at the palace, but now it was impossible, and just because he spoke his own words. Zuko held a hand up and placed it on his scar. Then he quickly put his hand back down. He heard something, he knew he did. Zuko turned around to see Kuzon standing a few feet away from the rock he was sitting on. "That's a bad scar." Kuzon said.

Zuko turned and continued to stare off into the distance again. Then Kuzon came over and sat down on the rock beside him, but he didn't move, he just stared. "I'm sorry about whatever happened." Kuzon said.

"It was a long time ago." Zuko responded.

"Well, you're not the only one." Kuzon said. "I have one too."

Zuko looked over and Kuzon pulled back his left sleeve. Zuko's eyes widened as he stared at the scarred, disfigured arm. "See?" Kuzon said kindly, pulling his sleeve back down. "We both have them."

And for the first time in a while Zuko cracked the slightest grin.

 **So, who likes Kuzon, huh? Let me know with that little review button, and I would greatly appreciate it.**

 **I used to have a link typed here to show you some pictures I made of the characters, and that was where I showed you some important parts of Kuzon's appearance, but the photos didn't work, so here: Kuzon has dark red, short, straight hair, bright green eyes, and freckles.**


	9. Chapter 9: Earth to Elian

**Hey! Good thing you're back, because this is about to get interesting!**

I woke up to the arguing yells of two people coming from outside the makeshift tent I had made out of a large cloak. Listening harder I concluded that the voices arguing belonged to Toph and Katara. I got up, lifted lifted flap of my tent, and stepped out. As I expected, it was Toph and Katara. They were both covered in mud, breathing heavily, and angrily narrowing their eyes at each other. I stepped in between them and held my arms out. "Please, this won't solve anything, I promise." I said.

They continued to glare at each other. "She started it!" Katara protested.

"Yeah, sure!" Toph Answered.

"What, are you saying is my fault?!" Katara asked.

"Maybe I am!" Toph shot back.

"Guys, please… STOP!" I shouted.

I thrust my arms outwards and pillars of earth shot up from the ground and straight into Toph and Katara's stomachs. They both shot backwards in opposite directions, the mud flying off them, and landed with a dull thud. They didn't make any move to get up, but just lay there breathing heavy, rasping breaths. "Toph! Katara!" I cried worriedly with tears forming at the corners of my eyes. "What did I do?"

"AANG!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

In a second Aang, Sokka, Zuko, and Kuzon ran up. Worry automatically showed on all four of their faces. "Katara!" Sokka shouted, running up to her.

"I don't know what happened!" I cried. "I'm so sorry I, it all happened so fast!"

Tears ran down my cheeks as I lowered myself to the ground and pulled my knees against my chest. Zuko and Kuzon stood speechless, trying to process what just happened. Aang looked like he wanted to shouted, not in anger but in worry, but he didn't. Instead, he walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him hesitantly through a blanket of tears. "I-" I stuttered.

"What happened?" He asked calmly. "Was it?"

Then he looked over at Toph and I knew what he meant. I simply shook my head, tears still streaming from my eyes. Aang sat there for a minute trying to process what I was saying. Then he seemed to understand something. "So it was?" Aang asked, giving me a meaningful look.

I simply shook my head and his my face in my knees. "How did? OK, I'm confused." Zuko said.

"Me too." Kuzon agreed.

"Elian?" Aang said, tapping me on the shoulder.

I looked up at him with worried eyes. "I'm so sorry." I told him barely above a whisper.

Aang grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "I bet they're fine." He told me. "How about you go help Toph?" He added, heading over to Katara.

I nodded and rushed over to Toph. She was breathing fine, the impact must have just surprised her. "Are you OK?" I asked slowly as Kuzon ran over. (Zuko just stood there awkwardly.)

Toph nodded a bit and held her hand out. I grabbed her hand and helped her up. "What was that?" She asked when she was standing.

"I think it was me." I told her quietly.

She looked very confused. I turned around to see that Aang and Sokka had gotten Katara standing as well. Me and the others, including Zuko, walked over to Katara, Sokka, and Aang. "So…" Kuzon said confusedly.

"I don't know." I answered. "But I think I did this."

"I thought you were an airbender, though." Zuko said.

"I am." I told him.

Then I created a small tornado in my hand and sent it off. "See?" I asked.

"Then how could you have done this?" Sokka asked.

"Look, I'm just as confused as you are, but it wasn't Toph or Katara and I was the only other one around. Who else would it have been?" I asked.

No one said anything. "Are you guys OK?" I asked Toph and Katara.

"I'm fine." Katara assured. "Sorry Toph." She added quietly.

"Yeah." Toph said.

Suddenly Toph froze for a second before shouting. "Guys, watch out!"

We all turned around and found ourselves almost face to face with eight of the masked men. "No!" I shouted, thrusting my hands out in front of me.

Then a wave of earth shot forwards like a wave of water would. It sent all eight of the masked men flying backwards. They landed on the ground and the wave of earth almost crushed them. Everyone stared at me for a few seconds then I shook myself back to reality. "Guys, let's go." I said.

Then we all ran up to the bison. "Yip-yip!" I shouted as the last person got on.

Then we were off. Off again, confused and with more question than answers. Mystery. That's what this was. One big mystery.

* * *

"Come in." She said, answering the knock that came from the other side of the door.

A man entered wearing an identical uniform to the ones of the masked men. "Princess, I am afraid I have come bearing bad news." He said.

"What is it?" She answered.

"I am afraid the group you sent out yesterday has just returned." He told her.

"And?" She responded back.

"Well they… they have all been sent to the hospital chamber, princess. I am afraid the mission was not a success. " He said.

"What?" She asked, trying to keep herself calm.

"They… They said the airbender has learned of her power to control the elements. And… She has met the firebender. " He told her hesitantly.

This time she could not keep calm. "What?!" She shouted, her outburst echoing through the chamber.

"I am afraid it does not look good for us, princess." He stated.

After some consideration, Nupira answered. "Go and fetch my sisters. Tell them 'they' have found the firebender. You may leave."


	10. Chapter 10: The dragon of the west

**Hey, I know it's been a while since my last update, but I've been busy. Either way, thank you so much for sticking with me to the tenth chapter. I very much apriciate your views and support throughout my fanfic so far. But don't get too bored with me yet, I've got plenty of tricks up my sleeve for you! Again, thank you so much for all your support and, without further ado, chapter TEN!**

It had been a while since she sent for her sisters that morning. She had become impatient. 'When are they coming?' She thought. 'This is important, they should be here already.' Just then, as if on que, there was a knock on the door that sat directly in front of her, on the far wall. She looked up from her desk and nodded approvingly at the perfect timing. She rose to her feet and answered in her high pitched, clear voice. "Come in." She said.

The knob turned slowly and a creak echoed through the chamber as the door opened. The same man from this morning entered. "Have you brought my sisters?" Nupira asked him.

"As you instructed, princess." He told her, bowing.

"Shall I send them in?" He added.

"No, I thought we would just chat through the walls, OF COURSE SEND THEM IN!" She shouted sarcastically.

The man flinched back and shook in fear. "Y-yes princess." He stammered, bowing shakily as he left the room.

In a few minutes there was another knock at the door. "They have arrived princess." The man's voice was muffled by the closed door.

"Let them in." She answered.

As soon as she yelled out, she heard a few orders barked out from the other side of the door, and the knob turned. The room once again filled with the creaking sound of the doors opening, and three figures formed in the shadows of the doorway. As the three figures drew closer, color showed on their clothing, hair and faces, and the doors were closed behind them. "So, you have finally arrived?" Nupira asked.

The first figure, who had long light brown hair pulled back into a ponytail with two braids in the front, showed no smile on her face, but she frowned with seriousness. "Is what he told us really true, Nupira? Have they really found the firebender already?" She asked urgently.

"I am afraid so, Akunia. That is why I have called you here. I need all three of you in case they find out the true extent of their power." She answered seriously.

"We can't let that happen!" The second figure, who had her long hair pulled back into pigtails that almost went past her waist, exclaimed in a much more high pitched voice than Nupira.

"I know that Shalia!" Nupira spat out the name in annoyance.

Shalia simply looked off to the side as if she was used to being yelled at. "So, are you guys in?" She asked.

"Are you kidding? I've been wanting to get back in the business for ages now! Heck I'm in!" Akunia exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm in. Can't let you guys have all the fun, now can I?" Shalia said with an exited giggle.

"What about you, Ikasa?" Nupira asked, addressing the third figure, who had short, ragged hair.

Ikasa hoisted the bow up higher on her back and the corners off her mouth perked up for a second. Nupira smiled widely and walked over to the left wall of the room, her footsteps echoing through the large chamber. She grabbed a sword in sheath off the wall and swung it over her shoulders by the strap. "They have no idea who they're messing with, do they?" Nupira said.

Three of them burst into malicious laughter while Ikasa smirked wildly.

* * *

We had spend the rest of the day flying, stopped for the night, and kept flying until now, just hitting evening. Appa flew smoothly, but Tiki was now flying uneven, never flying at the same height for more than three seconds, and I could tell she was exhausted, even though she was only carrying two people other than me. Then, as if it was waiting for me to think what I had just thought, a tent appeared in the distance. That meant there was someone else there. "Hey guys, you think we could stop for the night?" I asked. "Tiki's drained."

Aang nodded in agreement and flicked the reigns on Appa. Seeing the tent, Aang followed me to the small clearing the tent was sitting in the center of, and we both landed.

Kuzon, who had been asleep, jerked up suddenly, mumbling. His hair was a ragged mess, and he looked around with his arms held in front of him defensively for a moment before realizing where he was and relaxing. "Um, Kuzon?" I said, laughing slightly at the state of his hair.

Kuzon smiled goofily as his hands shot up to his head and he tryed to straighten out his hair. Everyone got off the bison one by one, jumping down into the soft, green grass. "Hey, wait up!" Kuzon shouted, jumping down and running to catch up with us. "Where are we going?" He asked.

"Not sure. I guess we could see who's staying here and say hi." I suggested.

"Works for me." Sokka agreed, shrugging.

Just then, there was a rustling sound coming from the tent, and a short, elderly man came out of it. "Uncle!" Zuko shouted, running up to him.

The man pulled him into a hug and told him "It's been too long."

But his eyes didn't show joy, they rather showed pain. He almost looked... regretful. Zuko broke from the embrace and looked warmly at his uncle. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Ba sing we to run your tea shop? What are you doing out here?" Zuko asked him.

"Well, that was my original plan, but it didn't last long. I figured that after the war had just ended, I might be a help to some people. Besides, there were still places I hadn't seen yet. This world is a beautiful place, you know." The man answered back.

The man seemed a bit familiar. Not like, I'd seen him before familiar, but more like, I've heard of you familiar. I thought for a second, then something came to my mind. 'That must be Iroh!' I thought. Aang had told me some about him on our way to the palace. I walked up to him and held my hand out. "I'm Elian." I told him.

He shook my hand and his eyes shone. "It's nice to finally meet you." He told me.

I know him because Aang told me about him, but what did he mean by 'finally meet you'? How does he know me? I blinked in confusion. "Finally?" I asked him.

"Oh, how much I have heard of you." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. "Has it really spread this far already?"

"Oh, I haven't heard from other people, I've heard from the spirits." He explained.

"The spirits?" Zuko asked doubtedly.

"Oh yes, the spirits." Iroh answered him. "They have been accompanying me on my journeys. And, oh much they have to say!"

"You can talk to spirits?" Aang asked.

"I don't talk to them, but rather they talk to me." Iroh answered.

* * *

Iroh had made us soup and tea, and after that we all just hung out and exchanged stories. Time had flown by pretty quick, and now the sky was dark and the moon was rising.

Iroh had just called Zuko over, and they both entered the tent. A few minutes later, Iroh and Zuko left the tent and Zuko sat down on a log beside the fire and simply stared into the fire, completely lost in thought, and fighting back a flood of tears. Then Iroh looked at me and Aang specially and flicked his head to call us over. Me and Aang exchanged looks and slowly walked over to Iroh. "Is everything alright?" I asked him.

"I have a favor to ask you. It will take both of you and it will not be easy." Iroh explained.

"What is it?" I asked him.

He stayed silent for a minute, then responded flatly. "I need you to transfer my body to the spirits."

"What? No, I can't do that." Aang said.

"No. It's too dangerous." I said on top of Aang.

"Please." Iroh begged. "I know you only wish the best, but just listen to what I have to say."

Me and Aang sighed and nodded. "I have lived a very long and fulfilling life. The only thing I had left to see was the end of this dreadful war. And now that you have given that to me, and now that my nephew is on the right path, there is nothing else keeping me here. I know my nephew is in good hands traveling with you, and nothing else would make me happier now than to go live with the spirits. I can only ask one thing of you before you help me to the spirit world. Please make sure my nephew, too, can have a long and fulfilling life. I fear the spirits may be in danger." Iroh explained.

Me and Aang looked at each other and decided. 'If that's really his last wish.' I thought with a sigh.

A few minutes later we had moved the tent to the side of the small clearing. Aang and Iroh walked to the center of the clearing, but stopped as soon as the realized I wasn't walking with them. Iroh turned and walked up to me with a sigh. "When I asked you to help me to the spirit world, I wasn't talking to only Aang." He stated.

"But I can't-" I started.

Iroh held up a hand, looked me dead in the eye, and said in a very serious voice "You have just as much power as Aang."

I sat in silence for a minute, soaking up his words, then I nodded and walked over to one side of the clearing. Aang walked over to the opposite side of the clearing from me and looked over at me to with tears forming in his eyes. I could tell he really didn't want to do this. I didn't want to either, and I felt my eyes water with regret already as Iroh sat down in the very center of the clearing. Aang entered the avatar state, and the second he did, my eyes and tattoos flashed and my wings once again sprouted from my back. 'Wait, I didn't do that.' I thought. The others, who had never seen my huge wings before, made surprised sounds and gasps as my wings finished forming, each wing three times my hight. Me and Aang held our arms out sideways and formed an air current in a ring in the center of the clearing. The air current slowly turned gold and, evenly in between me and Aang, shot straight towards the middle of the clearing and Iroh. Iroh smiled directly and pointedly at Zuko, a single tear running down his cheek, as the last of his face was surrounded in a sphere. The golden air bubble faded, only to reveal empty air where Iroh sat seconds ago. But as the air bubble faded completely, it revealed a pattern in the grass... The white lotus. And in the middle of that pattern sat a lotus tile. Me and Aang dropped weakly as Aang left the avatar state, and my wings disappeared from my back.

"Uncle!" Zuko shouted through tears, running up to the center of the clearing.

Zuko picked up the tile and held it against his chest as he collapsed onto the ground in the center of the pattern, his whole body shaking violently with unrelenting sobs.


	11. Chapter 11: Who am I?

**Welcome back… Please don't kill me over last chapter. I've already got my sister at my throat over it so, please don't hunt me down…:-)**

It kept destroying everything. It just kept destroying everything. And, with a terrible realization, I noticed… It was me. **I** kept destroying everything. **I** just kept destroying everything. But not just me, I'm only half of it. The other half is… well, I don't know who the other half is. I can't see them, they're completely surrounded in a pitch black sphere. I cringed back as the left arm, which the other one is controlling, smashed through multiple buildings in one swipe. I pulled the arm I was controlling, the right one, back and prepared to swipe against my will. Then a voice echoed through my head, I looked around but I couldn't locate it's source. It sounded like Iroh, and it quoted the last words he said to me, the very seriousness of it flowing through the air along side the disembodied voice. "You have just as much power as Aang." As the echo faded I, against my will, thrust the arm forward and straight into the fire nation royal palace.

I shot straight up with a sharp gasp, sweating and breathing heavily, in the tent that used to be Zuko's. I looked around quickly, noting the stickiness that covered my face from crying in fear. 'I'm still in the tent.' I told myself, trying to calm down. 'That's not me.' I shook my head and absentmindedly ran my fingers through my hair.

Then I heard something coming from one of the other tents. Listening harder, I recognized the sound to be crying. No, it was sobbing. 'Oh, Zuko.' I thought solemnly. I got up and left my tent and, just as I thought, the sobbing was coming from the tent that used to be Iroh's.

Iroh had left his tent, a tea set, a blanket, a bit of money, and whatever other random nick-nacks that were floating around in his tent when he moved on, to Zuko.

It was early in the morning, but the sun was bright in the distance, and the early morning fog had long since disappeared. I looked around to see if anyone had gotten up yet, but I didn't see anyone at first glance. Looking farther, I spotted an open tent. It was Kuzon's. I looked around again, but I didn't see any sign of him. Then I walked into forest that was lining the clearing a little ways and began calling his name softly. I took one last look, called his name one more time, and was about to turn and head back to the clearing when I heard a sigh let out shakily. I looked over again and concluded that someone was sitting behind a tree, seeing the edges of their feet. I walked around the tree and, slowly, up to Kuzon. He was sitting on the ground against the tree, holding his legs against him. I put my hand on his shoulder like Aang had done so often for me, and he looked up at me. He wiped the tears from his eyes and looked gratefully at me. "Are you OK?" I asked him gently.

He nodded. "It's kinda personal." He told me.

"Well you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to." I told him.

"Thanks." He responded, smiling.

"You're pretty brave you know." I told him.

"I-huh?" He stuttered.

"Well, one: You refused the fire nation, and two: You wanted to come with us in the first place." I said.

"Um-I-Uh." He stuttered, blushing and turning his head away.

"I didn't… scare anyone, did I?" I asked him.

"What do you mean?" He responded, flicking his head back towards me.

"With the… the wings." I explained to him.

"Oh, well it was… a bit… I mean… surprising." He stuttered.

I looked down and then sat on the ground next to Kuzon. He was trying to avoid saying it. He was trying to be nice. I _was_ scaring them, maybe that thing really _is_ me. "So I _did s_ care you, didn't I?" I asked him in defeat.

Kuzon looked away nervously and stuttered a bit before responding hesitantly. "I-Ye-You-I mean, well… yeah." He confessed.

"Sorry." I muttered shamefully.

"That's not why I'm out here, though." He said quickly.

I was relieved to hear him say that, but it gave me a question. What was bothering him then? "Well, can I help you with why you _are_ out here, then?" I asked him.

"I don't think so." He responded. "Like I said, it's kinda personal."

There was an awkward moment of silence until Kuzon spoke up. "So, you can control them, right?" He asked me.

"Huh? You mean…" I asked him slowly.

"Yeah." He confirmed.

"Well, yeah I can." I told him.

"What's it like controlling those big wings?" He asked me.

"Well, it's almost like having an extra arm or something. Almost, but I can feel them. Not like you feel your arm, _or_ like you feel the element you're bending. It's kinda in between. " I explained.

"Hm. Kinda strange huh?" He asked.

"You got that right!" I told him. "This is all strange."

"Mhm." He agreed.

"Sorry again." I said.

"About what?" He asked.

"The uh, the wings." I told him. "I guess I hadn't thought about it that the size could be a bit… intimidating. "

"Oh, well they're actually uh, they're actually pretty. " He said, blushing slightly and rubbing the back of his neck.

My heart skipped a beat and I felt like hugging him. "Thanks" I responded, feeling my own cheeks grow warm.

"C'mon, we should probably get back." I added, standing up.

Kuzon stood up too, and we both walked to the clearing. When we entered the small clearing, everyone except for Zuko was up and out of their tents. "Oh, there you guys are." Katara said. "Breakfast is ready."

Then she looked solemnly over at Aang. "Should I even get Zuko?" She asked.

Aang thought about it for a minute, then responded. "Probably. He's gotta eat."

"I'll go get him." I said, heading over to Zuko's tent.

I hesitated in front of the tent a bit before speaking. "Zuko?" I called.

There was no answer, but I continued anyway. "Breakfast is ready."

"No." Was the blank response that answered me.

"Zuko, I know you shouldn't have to deal with this, but you have to eat something. Were leaving as soon as breakfast is over anyway. " I responded.

There was a moment's pause, a shakily left out breath, and then the flap of the tent opened and Zuko trudged out. He looked terrible. There were bags under his eyes and his face was stained with tears. He wiped his eyes, sniffled, and then trudged over to where the others were. I sat down in the circle, and Zuko sat as far away, with still being in the circle, as possible. Zuko finished eating before anyone else and went straight over and sat on Tiki, ready to leave as soon as possible. When everyone had finished eating, we all filed onto the bison and left off. Kuzon joined me and Zuko on Tiki, and everyone else rode on Appa. As we flew off, though, Kuzon caught my eye and mouthed "thank you." I smiled back at him with a thankfulness resting on my heart. I really needed that, to just talk for a second. Kuzon was a lot different than I thought when I first met him. He wasn't _just_ some goofy kid, he had so much more to him than that.


	12. Chapter 12: Captives

"So, what can they do?" Kuzon asked.

We had landed again, and this time we had found some open ground.

"I'm not sure." I answered him.

I was going to try to form my wings. I had actually never formed them on purpose, if you think about it. They had always formed on their own.

"I'll need some quiet though." I told them. "And you might wanna stand back in case this works."

Then I sat down in a meditative pose and started breathing in and out in long breaths. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the sounds of nature around me and the strong connection I always had with nature. When I opened my eyes, my wings were just finishing their formation.

"Wow." Kuzon muttered.

It was just Kuzon, Aang and me. The others were back at camp and Zuko still wouldn't leave his tent unless he had to.

After a short minute, I stood up, turned to Aang and Kuzon, and spread my wings straight outwards. Now it was my turn to say "wow".

Now that I think about, I'd never actually been able to just look at my wings. I was always too busy.

They were almost intimidating me. Now I understand why I was scaring Kuzon with them. I held my right wing out in front of me and stretched my arm out towards the middle section, the section made of water. As soon as my hand touched it, I jerked my hand and my right wing away from each other. It felt so weird, like it was a part of me, but it wasn't. Almost like it was made out of the energy inside me or something.

I left out a breath shakily, straightened my wing, then looked over at Aang and Kuzon and smiled. "Go ahead, try it." Aang encouraged.

I nodded, bent legs, and held my wings above me. My wings really were huge, and they were now casting a large shadow over me and the area around me, including Aang and Kuzon. "Might wanna back up a bit more." I warned them.

They backed up more, obeying my words. I straightened my legs fast in a jump and swung my wings down with great force. I immediately felt wind rush past me as I soared upwards. I was expecting to fall right back down, but I didn't. To my surprise, I just hovered there. I hovered unevenly and let out a surprised gasp. "I-it's working! " I shouted.

Then I dropped a few feet and frantically sped up my wing speed. Closing my eyes, I calmed myself down and eased my wing speed to as slow as possible. I tilted the edges of my wings as they glided up and down slowly, and I started to rise higher.

I smiled and opened my eyes, but directly after my smile faded into a frown of surprise. I didn't realize how high I'd gotten. Suddenly I realized I didn't know how to get down. I hovered up and down in that spot and racked my brain for some way to get down. Then I shouted down to Aang while gesturing with my hands. "I… can't get down!" I shouted.

Aang waited for a moment then shouted something I couldn't hear, gesturing speed with his hands, while Kuzon nodded in agreement. 'Speed?' I thought. Then it hit me. I rose when I slowed down my wings, so…

I sped up my wings as much as I could and, slowly, unevenly, I started to lower.

I lowered until I was about ten feet from the ground. Then, without warning, I dropped from the air and collided with the ground, dull pain hugging my legs. I didn't care about the pain that was thumping in my legs as I hit the ground, I was overwhelmed with thoughts.

I picked myself up onto my knees and smiled widely up at Aang and Kuzon as they both rushed over. "That was… wow." Kuzon said wordlessly.

"I know!" I exclaimed. "I can't believe this is happening!"

"Me neither." Aang said with a sigh.

"What's wrong?" Kuzon asked.

"Nothing, nothing." Aang answered. "I'm just so confused… by all of this."

"Me too." I added while Aang and Kuzon sat down.

"How is this happening?" Aang asked wearily.

Everything went quiet. Now he was asking the real questions. The types of questions I just couldn't shake. I sighed and looked down as my wings shook up and down slightly. Kuzon looked down too, but he kept stealing glances at my wings.

Suddenly I got an idea. "Hey guys, you wanna go check up on Zuko?" I asked them.

Aang and Kuzon seemed to perk up at that. "Yeah, good idea." Aang agreed.

As we neared the camp, Kuzon turned to me. "You're keeping your wings um… on?" He asked.

"Yeah, why not?" I responded.

"Nothing, just asking." He told me with a shrug.

Before we could enter camp, though, someone clasped their hand over my mouth and grabbed me, pulling me to my feet. Two more of the masked did the same thing to Aang and Kuzon. They blindfolded us and started bringing nus somewhere. I stuck my foot into the ground as they dragged us away.

After a few hours, they had brought us, or at least me, to a boat and made to hop out on the other side. I saw this as my chance and struggled to get free, wriggling as much as possible and pushing my wings against my captor.

I tore my blindfold off as I jumped passed the boat and ran. I turned around while running, jumped, did a flip in the air, and landed on Kuzon's boat. I grabbed Kuzon's hands and he gasped, unable to see as he still had his blindfold on. "It's just me." I told him.

Then I jumped over to Aang's boat, bringing Kuzon along with me, and grabbed Aang's hand. Aang gasped too, just like Kuzon had. "Hold on." I told him.

Then, with a flap of my wings, I jumped right over the masked man at the front of Aang's boat and towards the shore with Aang and Kuzon.

But then, mid jump, my wings just disappeared. Me, Aang and Kuzon all screamed as we came crashing to the ground.

"What happened?" Kuzon asked as he and Aang fumbled to pull their blindfolds off.

I stood up and looked behind me to see that all three of the masked men were nearly arm's length from me. "There's no time!" I shouted to them as I grabbed their hands.

Then I shot forward, as fast as could go, dragging Aang and Kuzon behind me as they screamed and tried to set their feet straight.

I don't know how long we had been running, but by the time we stopped, Aang had had to take over most of the running, and he and Kuzon had both taken their blindfolds off. When we finally stopped, we all tumbled along the forest floor and collapsed, breathing heavily. I looked over at Aang, who was to the left of me, and simply held his hand.

It was just me, Aang, and Kuzon now. Until we find the others, that is.


	13. Chapter 13: OK, so where do we start?

It's still the same morning. We haven't gone anywhere since we stopped in the forest about thirty minutes ago. We've just been pondering. Pondering and talking. Trying to figure out what to do next. How do we get back? How do we stay away from the masked men? How are we supposed to protect the others if we can't even get back to them?

That last question is bothering me the most. Zuko is in no condition to fight, Katara's water pouch is empty and they're not near any source of water, and it's still early enough that the others won't even be awake yet. I have a really, really bad feeling about all of this. What if they get ambushed? What if they get captured too? Will they be able to escape like we did?

I shift slightly and sit up straighter against the tree I'm leaning against. Aang and Kuzon are sitting nearby. "What are we going to do?" I ask.

Aang and Kuzon both sigh, obviously both thinking the same thing. "Do either of you know which way they brought us?" I ask.

Aang and Kuzon stay quiet. "Even the general direction?" I pri.

There's no answer. "We could just try going a random direction?" Kuzon suggests.

"That's not gonna work." I say, shaking my head. "They had us for hours, we could be anywhere."

Aang moans and throws his head back. "This is hopeless!" He exclaims.

' _I just can't take this depressing atmosphere anymore, I've got to fix this somehow._ ' I think. Just then, an idea pops into my head.

In one quick move, I stand up and blast a strong gust of wind straight at Kuzon.

Kuzon blasts backwards and screams in surprise, then he catches himself on a tree. He holds a surprised frown for a moment, then he smiles playfully and stands himself back up. "OK, you're game!" He shouts excitedly.

"C'mon Aang!" I shout, blasting at him.

Aang quickly jumps, avoiding the blast, and shoots back at me.

I don't expect it coming, but I just manage to move in time. Then I feel a slight warmth by my face and duck, a small, cool flame barely reaching where my head was a second ago. Laughing, I send a blast back at Kuzon while avoiding a high blast from Aang.

' _Kuzon was so gentle with that flame._ _Even if I hadn't ducked, it wouldn't have hurt me._ _Oh, Kuzon!_ _I just want to hug you sometimes!'_ ' I think.

We'd gone on like that for a while, but we finally got tired and slowed it down to a simple chat, and we've gotten on the topic of unique bending moves we've seen.

"There was this one move that Gyotso showed me that I thought was pretty cool. He said it was called the 'air ball'." I tell them.

"Gyotso showed you that, huh?" Aang asks.

"Yeah. He said one of his favorite students showed him."

"Well, it looks like I'm one of his favorites then!" Aang exclaims.

"So _you_ made that up!" I say smiling. "I've always wanted to know who made up the move that influenced my 'air skates'."

"What's the 'air skates'?" Aang asks.

"It's a move I made." I answer him.

"Can you show me?"

"Uh, sure. Why not?" I ask him in answer.

I then stand back from Aang and Kuzon and ready myself. I start by forming small versions of the air ball around my hands and feet. I jump straight upward and, holding the spheres in the air, I hover rather than falling back to the ground. Just as always, I could do pretty much anything I wanted as long as I kept the miniature air balls in the air and around my hands and feet. "Usually, though, I like to skate with them. That's why I call them the air skates."

Then I rest the air around my feet on the ground and now my feet hover an inch above the grass. I then slide my left foot forward as I twist my hands slightly. Shooting my other foot forward, I'm now on the other side of the small clearing. Without stop, I turn my feet to face the other way and skate back over to the others.

"That's so cool!" Aang exclaims excitedly as I stop beside him.

"How do you do that again?" He asks, trying to form the spheres a little too big around his hands.

"See, just try one at a time." I instruct, straightening his left arm a bit. "And try making them smaller."

I watch him copy my instructions and, just like I had, form each air ball around his hands and feet and stand on them like shoes. A prideful and excited smile spreads across his face. "Now how do you do the skating part?" He asks, obviously eager to take on the next part of the move.

' _He caught onto that really fast.'_ I think. ' _It took me much longer than that when I had first done it.'_

"You just slide one foot at a time." I explain while I form the air skates again and stand slightly over the grass. "And if you control the currents a bit so they're pushing you forward, it makes it a lot easier."

Aang follows my instructions and, once again, copies the move perfectly. He skates alongside me for a little bit, then we both stop and released the air skates, landing back in the grass.

"Ok, I gotta hand it to you, that was pretty fun!" Aang exclaims.

"It's useful too, makes for a good speed boost."

I suddenly hear a voice coming from the left. "Hey, guys?" It asks.

I look over towards the voice and see Kuzon. I had completely forgotten he was here. I feel like pounding my fist on my forehead, but instead I simply answered him. "Huh?"

"Well, shouldn't we be finding a way back to the others?"

"He's got a point." I state, turning to Aang for an agreement.

Aang's smile fades with a sigh. "I know, and I want to find them as much as you guys, if not more."

Aang seemed so reluctant. What was stopping him? "Let's go find our way back then." I respond, pointing in a random direction.

"It's just that… I'm scared OK?" Aang confesses. "What if we get back and… it's too late?"

"I'm sure they'll be fine." I say it, although something was telling me otherwise. It just doesn't feel right. "We don't even know what those masked men are capable of anyway."

Aang doesn't seem comforted by my words. In fact, it seems I have only worried him further.

"That's just it!" Aang shouts, thrusting his arms into the air. "We **don't** know what they're capable of. For all we know, they could have… well I don't know, they could have done anything!"

I try to blink back my surprise at his outburst. I rest my hand on his shoulder and he looks over at me. He seems to realize how angry he had gotten and calms down.

"Look Aang. You're right." I tell him. "I know. Anything **could** happen to them. But we won't know until we get there. Let's go."

Aang's face softens slightly as he simply nods. He takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. "OK, so where do we start?"

Oh, I hope everything's OK at the camp. Otherwise I'll have just calmed Aang for nothing. "Well, do either of you know which way it is to the lake?"

"I know we came from that way." Kuzon states, pointing to the right.

"Yes!" I shout excitedly. "C'mon, let's go."

So I start off to the right and Aang and Kuzon follow behind.

* * *

So, it's probably been about thirty to forty minutes since we left the clearing, and we've found ourselves walking in an open field. As we continue to walk, I try to figure out what's starting to appear in the distance, at the bottom of the long hill we're on.

Kuzon then moans and hangs his head. "Are we gonna be there soon?" He asks.

That's when I see it. That something in the distance is the lake. The yellow edge and blue body tells me that. The boats are gone though. The masked men must have gone back to report to whoever's leading them. Assuming they have a leader, that is.

"I think I can answer your question." I responded with a smile, pointing towards the lake.

Kuzon flicks his head up and follows where I'm pointing. As soon as he sees it, he grins excitedly. Aang also looks to the lake and seems to perk up a little bit, but not much. We run the rest of the way to the lake, but stop abruptly once we get there.

Left and right, both ways seemed endless. "Don't tell me we're walking around this." I say, panting.

I can't quite see the edge of the lake ahead of me, but I'm almost one hundred percent sure it would be faster than going around.

"I can give us an ice bridge." Aang states.

Following his words, he stands in the correct waterbending stance and starts freezing the water into an ice bridge, just wide enough for two people standing side by side.

We've probably walked for an hour now. I have no idea how Aang is still going like this. I remember from the treasure hunt in Omashu that Aang doesn't get tired as easily as I do, but even then, bending takes energy. And it's not like me or Kuzon could step in and help, neither of us are earthbenders or waterbenders. Either way, Aang keeps going. He continues to freeze the ice in front of us while the ice behind us melts.

The good thing, though, is that we're almost to the shore. I can see it… so close. And then Aang can rest for a bit before we go on. Suddenly someone's arm shoots in front of my stomach and stops me from walking. I look down and notice that the ice bridge stopped and I have one foot off the edge. I rest my foot back on the remaining ice and smile over at Kuzon. He quickly shoots his hand behind his back and grins sheepishly back at me.

"Aang? You ok?" I ask, turning around.

But Aang doesn't answer. He simply stands before me, not _doing_ anything, and not _looking_ at anything. But then, before my very eyes, his knees started to buckle under him. He wobbles unevenly, then collapses onto his side on the ice.

' _Oh, crap!_ ' I think as panic fills me. ' _I was right!_ ' I knew he couldn't handle it all! No one could have! "Aang!" I shout.

Me and Kuzon rush to the now unconscious Aang. I get on my knees beside him and turn him onto his back. I turn his head back and forth and confirm it. "I think he passed out from exhaustion." I tell Kuzon worriedly, looking up at him.

I hear a loud crack and my eyes shoot to the sound. I gasp as I realize what's happening. The ice is melting. I look back to Kuzon worriedly.

"Got any ideas?" I ask as the ice grows smaller.

Kuzon shakes his head while his face grows pale with fear and he scoots closer to me and Aang as the ice grows smaller still.

Suddenly I find that me Kuzon both have our feet slightly off the miniature piece of ice and Aang only has his left arm and main body on the ice. His left leg, right arm, and right leg are hanging off the ice into the water. I pick Aang up into my arms and stand.

In no time at all, me and Kuzon are back to back. I'm holding Aang in my arms, and Kuzon is squeezing my arm in fear. He must be terrified, though, because he's squeezing my arm so tight I can barely feel it anymore. And what I can feel hurts insanely.

"Kuzon, are you ok?" I ask him. "I mean, besides the fact that we're about to fall into a lake?"

"Would this be a bad time to tell you that I can't swim?" He responds, laughing nervously and gripping my arm even tighter.

I rack my brain for something, anything, to do. And an idea pops into my head. One that, at the moment, seems stupid. If Aang's unconscious, and Kuzon can't swim, I have to swim them both back to shore. "OK, hold Aang." I tell him.

I turn as much as possible and, with one foot off the ice, I pass the unconscious form of Aang over to Kuzon. "Now hold on to him." I say to Kuzon. "And ignore the water, Kuzon. Ignore the water."

The very second after I say that, me and Kuzon are suddenly plunged into the cold waters of the lake. My eyes sting for a second as they grow used to the lake water. I turn and swim straight up beside Kuzon. His eyes are squeezed shut and he's trashing his feet wildly, desperately trying to reach the surface but failing miserably. All the while, he's still holding Aang. I grab his right arm, right above the elbow, and he calms down a bit. I then start swimming, slowly, towards the shore.

I suddenly find that I had closed my eyes at one point. And I no longer feel water rushing past my face, but instead I feel wind. I slowly open my eyes and they automatically widen at the sight that now meets them. I have no idea what's going on. Aang is still unconscious, and Kuzon is still holding him. But now Kuzon is only holding Aang with his left arm, which is still, as always, covered by his long sleeves. With his other arm he's clinging to me around my stomach. Up to my waist is covered in a tornado of water. I look down towards the lake and see that me, Kuzon, and Aang are quite far above the water. And to make the whole situation even more complicated, my wings are there. Not only can I feel them, I can see them. I can see the reflections in the water around my waist and the shadow over me, Kuzon, and Aang. That's when I suddenly realize, with terrible fear, that we're falling. The water around my waist that leads to the lake is getting shorter and shorter and the sandy shore is getting closer and closer. Before I can get control, we collide roughly with the sand.

When I open my eyes and sit up, I see Aang sprawled awkwardly across the sand, and Kuzon starts to sit up. Kuzon opens his eyes, and the first thing he seems to notice is me. His eyes widen, his face grows pale immediately, and he starts to scoot away from me.

"Stop, Kuzon!" I shout roughly, standing up and walking over to him.

Kuzon shakes his head and mumbles something, scooting away farther. And, if possible, his face grows even more pale, making his freckles stand out. But what stands out to me isn't his freckles, it's the look of pure terror on his face. My wings are casting a large shadow over Kuzon, probably increasing his fear. I probably look like a monster… looming over him like this.

I back away shakily and feel tears sting at my eyes. I try to blink back the tears while I sit down in the sand, but it proves ineffective and I start crying anyway. I hide my face in my knees and turn away from Kuzon.

A minute or two later, I feel a hand on my left shoulder. I look up, and there's Kuzon. He smiles nervously and starts nervously rubbing the edge of his left sleeve between his fingers. "I'm, well, I'm sorry." He apologizes.

"You don't have to be." I answer. "I just… need to learn to control myself."

Kuzon sits still for a few seconds, unable to come up with an answer. "What was that?" He asks.

' _He's right._ ' I tell myself. ' _What_ _ **was**_ _that? I'm not a waterbender, I shouldn't have been able to do that._ '

"I don't even know how I did it. Only a powerful waterbender should have been able to do something like that."

"I'm sorry, Elian." Kuzon apologizes shamefully, looking down at his feet.

"Sorry for what?" I respond, curious.

Kuzon wasn't the one that just shouted. I hadn't meant to shout a minute ago. It just happened.

"For shrinking away from you like that. I was acting like you're some kind of monster or something. Believe me, I don't think that!"

"You don't have to apologize. I would have shrunken away from that, too."

"Not **that** , **you**." Kuzon corrects.

" **That** 's not me. It wasn't me, OK?"

I wish I could stop scaring him like that. I wish I never got these wings, or these weird random points when I bend elements that aren't mine!

"I'm so sorry Kuzon." I tell him.

I only hope he knows that it's not **me** scaring him. That I'm trying not to do it.

"I don't **want** to scare you Kuzon." I whisper.

"Hey, it's OK." Kuzon assures, putting a hand on each of my shoulders.

"Will **you** be OK though?" I ask.

"Don't worry about me. Some of it was because of the water."

I can believe that. He did seem really scared of the water.

"Where do we go from here?" Kuzon asks.

"I think we could all use a rest before we go on." I state, pointedly looking at the still unconscious Aang.

* * *

After a few hours, Aang finally woke up. Me and Kuzon had taken turns since that conversation. One would sleep for a half hour, while the other watched Aang. And then we would switch.

"Elian!"

I hear another shout as someone shakes me. I bet it's Kuzon. It must be my turn to watch Aang.

"Elian, he's waking up!"

That gets me up. I open my eyes and sit straight up in the sand.

"What?!" I scream excitedly, jumping to a stand.

I then rush over to where Kuzon is kneeling in the sand beside the unconscious figure and kneel in the sand on the other side of Aang.

Aang scrunches his face for a second, then slowly opens his eyes with a groan. "Are you OK Aang?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What happened? Where are we?" He asks, sitting up and looking around.

"Uh, we're on the other side of the lake." I tell him.

"The other side? How?"

I have to tell him. Me and Kuzon exchange looks, then we both look reluctantly back at Aang.

"I had another bending incident."

Aang looks confusedly between me and Kuzon.

"Do remember a week back? With the earth?"

Aang thinks for a moment, then he shakes his head.

"Well, the same thing happened earlier… but with water."

Aang sits in thought for a long minute, then speaks up.

"So… I passed out, didn't I?"

I nod.

"How long have I been out?"

"A few hours." I answer.

"Well we've wasted enough time then." Aang says, standing up along me and Kuzon. "If they were planning on doing anything to the others, they've had plenty of time."

I nod in agreement.

"So what now?" Kuzon asks.

I think for a minute, then I remember something and gasp.

"I had my foot in the ground!" I shout.

"What?" Kuzon asks.

"Sorry." I say, laughing. "I had my foot on the ground while they were dragging us, so if we could just find that trail…"

"You're a genius, Elian!" Kuzon shouts. "Let's go find this trail!"

* * *

We found the trail within the hour a have been following it until now. The moon is rising in the sky, and the air is starting to grow cold. As we continue our walk, we enter the open ground that we had been taken from this morning. The trail stops at the top of a hill, and the three of us stop there as well. "Guys, look! We're here!" Kuzon shouts.

I look up and follow where Kuzon is pointing, to the bottom of the hill, and I see the camp. But, even from here, I can tell something's not right. To start, I can't hear anything. Also, the camp is completely still. And I just have a really bad feeling about this. Almost like we're walking into a trap. Me, Kuzon, and Aang are all completely silent at seeing the state of the camp.

"Let's go." I say.

We walk down into the camp, and I had previously hoped that it would look better once we got down there, but to my disappointment it only looks worse… A lot worse. The stuff is strewn everywhere, some of the tents are ripped, there are random spots of earth that have shot upward, obviously Toph's doing, and there are scorch marks on the grass in random spots. But that's nothing compared to the last thing I have to mention. Blood. There's not much of it, but there is blood in miscellaneous places. Spotting some blood on the opening of Zuko's tent, I walk over to it slowly. Fear creeps up my spine as I reach out towards the opening. I take a deep breath, let it out slowly, then I close my eyes.

I then swing the tent flap open and open my eyes. Nothing. The stuff is flung around and a mess, and there's a little bit more blood. But no Zuko. I turn around and look back at Aang. "Gone." I say simply.

"I thought you told me they'd be OK!" Aang shouts, storming up to me.

His sudden outburst surprises me. I expected that he would be upset. That he would be sad, and disappointed. I had expected all of that. But I didn't expect him to storm up to me, yelling. That just doesn't sound like the Aang I know.

"I didn't know any of this would happen." I respond.

"Oh, you didn't know." Aang says, faking an understanding. "That makes everything better!"

"Look, Aang, what should I have done? This doesn't mean they're gone. It doesn't mean anything."

"It doesn't mean anything!" Aang says mockingly, shaking his hands in the air.

"Is that all you've got?" He asks, standing right in front of me and holding his staff back in an attacking stance.

Kuzon rushes up beside Aang and yanks the staff away from him. Aang automatically turns on Kuzon and grabs the staff back roughly, pushing Kuzon to the ground. Aang then holds the staff back, ready to strike at me, while Kuzon stands back up. Kuzon takes the staff back from Aang and tosses it aside. Aang, me, and Kuzon simply stand still.

"What are you doing, Aang?" I ask.

Aang stays silent.

"Aang, I can't have known… none of us could have." I continue.

Aang seems to be calming down.

"But… I do have something to confess." I say. "I **did** have a bad feeling about coming back."

Aang widens his eyes, then narrows them in anger, and he jumps for me.

"No Aang!" I shout, swinging my hands in front of me.

As I fling my hands to my sides, fire shoots forward in a wave. Aang holds his hands in front of him in defense, and Kuzon does the same with his right hand. As the fire disappears around them, they both scream. The fire fades within seconds and leaves Aang and Kuzon both standing there, tightening their hands in pain, tears running down their faces.

' _I just burnt them. I burnt Aang and Kuzon._ ' I think to myself.

Shaking violently, I cup my hands around my mouth and whisper, over and over, "I'm so sorry." With tears running down my face.


	14. Chapter 14: Wounded, yet free

**Hey, I'm back! I'm very sorry it has taken SO long to write this chapter, but I promise the wait was worth it… well, maybe. This chapter is very long compared to my other chapters, thirteen pages whereas most chapter are about five to seven, and it is written a lot better too, if I do say so myself. So, without further ado, after the loooong wait… chapter fourteen! Hope you like it! And don't forget that review button if you see any errors!**

Nupira sat in her chair at her desk, her sisters standing behind her. A knock echoes through the rather empty metal chamber room and Nupira looks up at the doors.

"What is it?" She asks irritably.

People had been bothering her all of yesterday and all this morning, just to tell her that there was no news yet on the airbenders and the firebender.

"General Shong Lee, Princess." A familiar voice answers from the other side of the metal doors.

Shong Lee. He was the one that had informed her over a month ago when the airbenders found the firebender, Kuzon. He better have some good news. She can't let the firebender tell them. Once they know, it will take no time at all until they learn of their spirit form… then nothing will be able to stop them, and she will never have a chance to rule, like she was chosen to do. Her plan to get the threen here must work! She must capture the firebender! And once she has him, she will be able to get all the information she wants on their spirit form, and they will have no chance against her, her sisters, and her army.

"Enter." Nupira calls out.

The large metal doors open and Shong Lee enters bowing.

"What reason do you have to disturb me?" She shoots at him roughly.

"There is news, Princess. Good news, Princess."

Finally, someone had something good to tell her. "Go on." She tells him.

"They have returned to the camp, Princess."

Nupira raises an eyebrow. This _is_ good news.

"A-And they… It looks like they are falling for the trap."

Nupira glares at him, and fear shows strongly in his eyes. He gasps, bows lower, and corrects himself.

" _Princess._ "

Nupira smiles approvingly. "What have you heard?" She asks. "How is the airbenders progress?"

"Well, Princess, she has now bent each of the elements, but it does not seem like she knows completely, Princess, how to bend the other elements in battle… Princess."

Nupira thinks on this. The airbender is not improving as fast as she had expected. This is both good and bad.

"Leave." She tells Shong Lee.

Shong Lee leaves the room bowing. Once the doors are closed, Shong Lee lets out a large sigh. He loved being the general, but that meant that he was the one to tell Nupira any news… He was lucky he had good news for her this time. He straightens himself, takes a deep breath, and his confidence returns as he starts down the long hall.

"Straighten up!" He shouts sharply at a group chatting with each other on the floor. "And where are your masks? You're a part of group A!" He then continues down the hall and spots another two people lazing around. "You! You!" He shouts, pointing at them. "Straighten up!" They both give him a "yes sir" and stand at attention. Shong Lee nods and continues down the hall.

Once he reaches the end of the hall, he enters a small room and steps up to a desk. He grabs a microphone from the desk and speaks sharply into it. "Everyone get into your assigned positions and be ready! They could be here any minute!"

Neither me nor Aang can say anything. Aang's feeling guilty because he had gotten so mad and tried to attack me, and I'm feeling guilty because I burnt Aang and Kuzon. Me and Aang are sitting facing away from each other, and Kuzon is standing in between us, trying desperately to fix the situation somehow.

"Please, at least look at each other." Kuzon pleads, trying to bring us back to our senses.

I sigh and stand, turning around. Kuzon backs up a step so we can all see each other.

"Look, neither of hold it against the other, right?"

"Right." Me and Aang mutter in unison, hanging our heads.

"Well there you go then." Kuzon says, thrusting his hands outwards. Immediately after, Kuzon sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth and winces, bringing his left hand back in front of him.

I shake my head and cover my face with my hands. I then feel a hand on each of my shoulders and look up to see both Aang and Kuzon resing a burnt hand on each of my shoulders. I smile and look from Aang to Kuzon while they both return their hands to their sides and back up a step.

"It wasn't your fault, Elian." Kuzon says.

"Yeah." Aang adds in agreement. "I'm sorry."

I nod. "I'm sorry too. I overreacted."

"I overreacted too." Aang says.

"Are you guys sure you're OK?"

They both nod.

"Whad'o we do about your hands?" I ask, desperate to fix things.

"Katara can help us when we find them again. But if it was those masked men that took them, we can't go like this. We're not ready." Aang responds.

I then get an idea and brighten up. "Hey Aang, what if you taught me?" I ask.

Aang blinks back his surprise. "Teach you?"

"Yeah, if that's OK. It might help… so this kinda thing doesn't happen again. I mean, we don't know why, but for some reason I can bend the other elements. Maybe we can make something out of this."

Aang thinks about this for a minute, then nods. "It might work."

Me and Aang have gone to a nearby river, while Kuzon is back at the camp, starting to pack up.

"Water was always the easiest for me, so I thought we could start with that."

I nod.

"Just try to feel the energy in the water. And copy the movements of the waves." While Aang talked, he stood in the correct stance and moves his body with in sync with the water.

I take a deep breath, let it out slowly, then match Aangs stance and start swaying with the water. Aang smiles.

"Good. Now try to move the water. Slowly."

Aang then starts to gently move the water back and forth. I watch Aang for a minute, then straighten my stance slightly and close my eyes. With my eyes closed, I can feel the cold water run over my feet in the shallow river. I open my eyes and move my hands with the waves, but nothing happens. I drop my hands disappointedly.

"You did everything right." Aang says confusedly. "Maybe water just isn't your strongest element. You wanna try fire for a bit,-"

"-and come back to water later?" I finish. "Yeah."

Me and Aang have found a different place to practice firebending that's a bit closer to camp.

"Yeah, just like that." Aang answers. "And then-"

Aang lunges his left arm forward and a fire blast shoots. I smile. I feel a warm energy filling me. It's almost exhilarating. I shift my stance, then shoot my arm forward, copying Aang. All of that energy gathers together and moves quickly down my arm, shooting out of my hand as fire. Aang gasps and jumps back from the huge blast. "I think we found your strong element." He says smiling widely.

We had trained firebending for the next few hours, then went back to water, and after another hour I had finally managed to do something. We spent the rest of the day on water, and in the morning me, Aang, Kuzon, Appa, Tiki, Momo, and Cosmo all gathered in a new spot so me and Aang could start on earth, where we've been for the past hour and a half.

I know you're supposed to 'feel' the earth when you bend it, but to me it just feels like… earth. I really don't feel anything. I thrust my arms outwards for the twenty second time that day, and once again, nothing happens. "I'm never gonna earthbend!" I moan, falling onto my back on the ground. "Hold on." I add, sitting up. I take a deep breath and after a minute, my humongous wings form on my back. I then stand up and repeat the actions Aang had shown me. This time, when I make the final movement, a huge chunk of earth shoots up and curves in a large arch over me.

"But…" Aang stutters confusedly. "Your bending is stronger when your wings are on?"

"I guess." I answer him. "I just thought because- you with the avatar state, and- I guess I just wanted to test my theory."

"Good thinking. Right Kuzon?"

Kuzon, who is leaning against Tiki, blinks a few times, then looks up for a second. "Uh, yeah."

"So it's kinda like the avatar state, right?"

Aang nods. "Yeah, it is."

"So my bending is more powerful when my wings are on." I state.

"A lot more powerful." Aang adds, looking up at the huge arch that I barely fit under with my wings.

I step back out of the arch and my wings fade from my back. I look behind me for a second, then I turn and address Aang. "I'm still confused, though."

"About what specifically?" Aang asks.

"How come we both knew Bumi and… the other Kuzon, _and_ both lived at the southern air temple for at least a little while, but still neither of us remembers knowing the other. It's just not logical."

"I was thinking that too, it just seems-"

"-Impossible." We both finish.

We look at each other and both of us laugh. "Do you thin k you're ready Elian?"

"With my wings." I answer nodding. "So how do we find them? We don't even know which direction they were taken."

"Hmm…" Aang thinks on this for a while. "We might as well go back to the camp and try to find something there."

I nod. "Let's go Kuzon."

Kuzon shakes his head and looks up, once again blinking. "Huh?"

"We're going back to try and find clues at the camp."

"Right." Kuzon answers, standing up.

Me and Aang walk up to the sky bison and grab our bison's straps. "C'mon Momo." Aang calls.

"C'mon Cosmo." I call.

Cosmo and Momo stop playing with each other and run up onto Appa.

When we get back to where we had camp set up, we find that it looks even worse when nothing's there. The random earth shot up, the flattened grass here and there, broken ground, and miscellaneous spots of blood give the whole area an eerie, and altogether terrifying, look. I can see on Aangs face that he's not doing well with this, none of us are. "Try to find a trail of some sort." I say, breaking the silence.

The others nod and we split, looking around the edges of the camp. After about five minutes, I notice something in the trees at the edges of camp… a slight trail of flattened grass and, every once in a while, blood. I crane my neck and turn my head to see farther, but I see no end to the trail. "Guys, over here." I call.

In a few seconds, Aang and Kuzon join me. We look at each other and nod. "Appa, Momo." Aang calls.

"Tiki, Cosmo." I call.

We start following the trail and the sky bison and lemurs follow us.

It's about two hours and we still haven't seen anything. We rarely see any blood and there's no sign of a struggle anymore. By the time they here they were probably passed out from… blood loss. The trail suddenly turns out of the trees. We continue to follow it, but stop when our eyes are met with a small, yet very tall, temple. We look at each other, then back to the temple and follow the trail in.

"Stay out here buddy." Aang says to Appa.

"All of you." I say to the other animals.

We walk through the open doors, into the temple, and see statue after statue lining the walls, and circling the walls all the way to the top. In the very middle is the statue of me and Aang. I walk up to it and stare at it confusedly. "It doesn't make sense." I say. "Why we're both on the avatar statue."

"It obviously has something to do with your wings, right?"

"Yeah. C'mon." I then follow the direction the trail was going in, but stop at a wall. Confused, I stand blankly while the others join me. "I don't get it."

"Me neither." Kuzon says.

"Hmm… I've got an idea." Aang then closes his eyes and goes completely still. After a short while, he opens his eyes again, holds his arms out, and bends a section of the wall down, revealing a tunnel.

"How did you know there was a tunnel?" I ask.

"Seismic sense. Toph taught me."

"Is that how she sees things? Seismic sense?"

"Mhm. Now let's get going."

I nod and we start down the tunnel. We walk out of the other side into a small room with a circular stone platform in the center and a few torches on the walls. We walk up to the platform and look down at it. "Got any ideas?" I ask.

Suddenly a fire shoots up from the center of the stone platform and me and Aang gasp and step back. Kuzon scream in terror, his face growing pale, and stumbles backwards against the wall, breathing heavily. Earth walls shoot out on either side of him, then close him in. "Kuzon!" I shout, running up to the box that now encases him. Suddenly I feel water wrap around my stomach, reminding me fearfully of when I was encased in the ice, and I gasp as I'm pulled roughly against a wall. Earth walls shoot from the walls on either side of me, then cover the front and top, forming a box around me. The wall behind me falls out, and suddenly I notice that there is no longer water around my stomach. I run to the edge of the box and pound my fists on it a few times, then I hear a gasp and I know that Aang is now trapped as well. I hear earth move, then move back. "Aang! Kuzon!" I shout.

"Here." They both call out.

"Aang, can you bend these walls?" I ask.

"Tried. I can bend them, but they come right back."

' _We just walked right into a trap!_ ' I think, resting my head against the wall with a sigh. "Ok, um… just follow the tunnels, ok?"

"Got it." They both respond.

I turn around, take a deep breath, and start walking down the dark tunnel.

It's been ten minutes now, and the tunnel hasn't led anywhere except for more pitch black. I stop and lean against the wall. That's when I hear breathing from somewhere nearby, really nearby, and freeze, holding my breath. "Hello?" I call out.

The breathing stops, then I hear a response. "Elian?"

It sounded just like me. That's Aang. I turn around and press my hands on the wall. "Aang?"

The voice sighs with relief, then responds happily. "Yeah, it's me."

"It's so good to hear your voice." We both say.

We laugh, then Aang speaks up. "Stand back from the wall."

"O-OK." I answer, a little taken by surprise, while I step back a few steps. It's so dark, I can't see anything, but the air is suddenly filled with dust and I start coughing. Then something bumps into me, and me and Aang both scream out in surprise. "Aang?" I ask, laughing slightly.

"I bent the wall of the tunnel." Aang explained.

"I can't see anything. Where are you?"

I then hold my hands out and my right hand hits something. Aang screams out in surprise. "Hold still." He says, laughing.

I stay completely still and something grabs around my right hand, causing me to gasp. "It's just me." Aang replies, and we both laugh again. Aang lowers his hand, bringing mine with it. "Let's go." Aang says, taking a step forward. I walk along with him.

Five minutes later, we see a small. "Yes!" We shout in unison.

I pull away from Aangs hand and we both run. Once we get to the end of the hall, however, we both slow to a stop. The tunnel ends at a large room with torches on the walls, completely filed with the masked men. This was definitely a trap. "GO!" I shout, closing my eyes. "Get the others!"

My eyes and tattoos flash and my wings form, barely fitting in the room. When I open my eyes, I see Aang jump off the wall and run into a doorway, then I turn my eyes back to the masked men. "OK, let's do this!"

Aang runs down the hall and starts calling their names out. "Katara!" He shouts, turning a corner. "Sokka! Toph! Zuko!" Aang shouts each of their names desperately. "Please! Anyone!" He turns another corner and sees a torch at the end of the hall. He runs to the end of the hall and turns again. There are two cells on the left side of the hall, and two more on the other, but one cell on the right has a door wide open. Aang runs up to the first cell on the left, and spots a limp figure slumped against the wall in the back corner. "Katara!" Aang cries, tears stabbing at his eyes as he bangs his fist on the bars. "Katara!" Aang rests his head against the bars and tears start rolling down his cheeks. "Katar-a." He says quietly, his voice catching.

"Aang…" A weak voice says barely audibly.

Aangs head shoots up and he watches desperately. "Katara?" He asks hopfully.

After another while he hears the voice again, but this time it was so quiet he couldn.t make out what it said. "Katara! I need to get you out of here!" He cries, pounding his fists on the bars again.

Aang froze. She said something again. But what was it? "Katara? What is it?"

This time she moved. She groans and weakly points to the wall where Aang had come from. "Keys…"

"Keys?" Aang asks confusedly, looking over to where she pointed.

Katara tries to talk again, but only manages to breathe heavily and point again. Aang takes a few steps back into the hall, and notices a set of keys hanging on a metal hook. Aang quickly grabs them and heads straight for the cell door. He shoves a key into the lock, then turns it and swings the door open. Still holding the ring of keys, Aang runs straight over to Katara and gets on his knees beside her. "Katara!" He exclaims once again. Now that Aang's beside her, he can get a good look at her condition. She's head to toe bruised, she has a large gash down her right side, and she's covered in blood. Aang, once again, feels tears rolling down his face, and he wraps his arms around her. She winces, then relaxes and smiles. "You're alive." Aang says. "I was so worried, Katara, you're alive."

"Sokka…" Katara mutters weakly.

Aang pulls away from her and nods, standing. "I'll get them."

"Zuko." She mutters suddenly.

"Yeah."

"They… took… somewhere else…"

"OK. Just stay here." Aang then leaves the cell and moves on to the cell next cell on the left. "Sokka?" He calls.

"There's definitely someone in there, he just can't tell who it is. "I'm gonna get you out, OK?" Aang then walks to the door and puts another key into the lock. He turns the key, hears a click sound, and pulls the key out, swinging the door open. Aang walks up to the figure lying near the back of the cell. It's Sokka. He looks as bad as Katara. Except, rather than a gash on his side, Sokka has a large gash across his chest and stomach, and a few very small cuts on his face. Aang sits him up and shakes him slightly. "Sokka! Sokka, it's me, Aang."

Sokka makes a small noise, and then his eyes open slowly. "Aang?" He mutters weakly. "They snuck up on us… they… they had knifes… Aang, they... Katara, is Katara-"

"-It's OK, Katara's alive, and I'm gonna get you all out of here."

Sokka closes his eyes in relief. Aang puts one of Sokkas arms over his shoulders and hoists him up, then starts to slowly make his way to the door. When Aang gets out of the cell with Sokka, he leans him against the left wall, in between the two cells. "Stay here, I'm gonna go get Toph."

Aang then walks over to the closed cell on the right, and puts the last key into the lock. He turns the key, pulls it back out, and opens the door. "Toph?" He calls out as he walks into the dark cell.

"I'm over… here, TwinkleToes." She calls back weakly.

Aang follows the voice and kneels beside her. "Toph, I'm gonna get you out of here."

Toph is petty bruised, but Aang doesn't notice any big gashes or anything. She has a few cuts, but not nearly as much blood on her as Sokka and Katara. Aang grabs one of her arms and puts it around his shoulders, then pulls her up. She limps along with him until they get out of the cell, then she pulls away from him and limps by herself to where Sokka is. "GO get Katara." She says, sitting against the wall.

Aang nods and rushes into Kataras cell. "Are they OK?" She asks.

Aang nods. "They're OK. Let's get out of here." He then grabs one of her arms and puts it over his shoulders. He slowly stands, bringing her with him. He then slowly makes his way out of the cell and leans her against the wall beside Sokka and Toph. "Sokka… Toph… you OK?"

"We're OK." They both say.

"These guys are more powerful than I thought." Aang says. "What did they do to you?" Then a thought occurs to him, and Aang fills with fear. "I left Elian alone with them."

' _A lot of them._ ' He finishes in thought.

I've gotten down about half of the masked men that were there originally, just knocked out obviously, but more keep coming. I lean over, breathing heavily, then shoot a blast of air, knocking four men against the metal walls. I lean over again, completely exhausted, and suddenly scream as something cuts through my left side. I instinctively shoot an air blast forward, knocking back a group of masked men, and look down at my side, which now has a large gash on it, from my armpit to my waist, which, luckily, isn't bleeding too badly for a cut that size. I clasp my hands over as much of the cut as I can, which honestly doesn't help. I then look back up and send a fire blast at the nearest masked men, causing them to back up. I lean over again, breathing rasping breaths and airbend a few more people against the wall, knocking them out. I scream as, once again, I feel a knife cut me. But this time, it cut from my right shoulder, across my spine, and down to my lower left back. I turn and send an air blast behind me, knocking the man out on the wall. ' _C'mon Aang._ ' I think. ' _I can't go much longer._ '

Aang suddenly jumps over the large crowd of masked men and lands beside me. "I've gotten the others into the hall, but I don't know where Zuko is." He tells me.

I nod. My wings fade from my back. I send an air blast to the left, then to the right, sending the masked men flying in either direction and clearing a way for me to get through. Clutching my side, I run into the hall and around the corner. There I find the others leaning against the wall, and I lean against the wall opposite them to catch my breath my breath.

"I'm coming back for you, OK?" I say, standing straight and running down the hall.

Fifteen minutes later, I hear something and stop. Was that a… scream? I slowly move closer to the source of the sound, walk around a corner and stop in front of a door, where I can clearly hear the conversation from inside.

"Unfortunate about our Uncle, isn't it?" A clear voice asks.

There's a loud and very angry scream that sounds a lot like Zuko. The scream fades to insane laughter, then back to angry screaming again.

'Our uncle'? That can't be his sister, can it? I haven't heard much about Azula, but from what I have heard, she's the last person who should be talking to Zuko while he's in his current mental state.

"I'll come back for you in a few hours, K?" The voice says.

I hear footsteps from inside the room and I gasp, then run around the corner and press myself against the wall, holding my breath. I hear the door open, then close again, and footsteps walking down the hall, luckily away from me. Once I can no longer hear the footsteps, I run around the corner and up to the door. Luckily, the door isn't locked. I open it and step inside the room, carefully closing it behind me. Zuko is in the middle of the room, tied to a metal chair. He flicks his head towards me and screams out in anger, pulling against the ropes. "It's me Zuko. It's Elian." I say. Zuko hears me, but he doesn't respond. He simply watches me closely as I slowly walk up to him. "Zuko, it's OK." I say, resting a hand on his shoulder. I pull my hand away and gasp as he screams out in anger again. He's not firebending at me. I think he knows it's me. Ignoring his angry screams and shouts, I step behind Zuko and untie the ropes binding him to the chair. I help him stand and lean him against my right side, wrapping his left arm around my shoulders and, once I start towards the door, his outbursts stop and he goes limp with a sigh. I stop by the door and shift Zuko so I can press my ear against it. Once again, I hear nothing. I carefully open the door, then look to the left and to the right, and once I confirm that it's safe, I start back down the hall. With every step, searing pain shoots through the cut on my left side and the cut across my back, and I wince and take a sharp intake of breath when I move

When I get back to the others, they all automatically look alarmed by Zukos state. "I don't know." I tell them. "I found him like this, it's like-" I then pause and take a quick intake of breath before continuing. "-like he's gone crazy." I then move to them and lay him against the wall beside Toph, his eyes flicking back and forth wildly.

"Why am _I_ babysitting him?" Toph asks.

"Cause you're the strongest here." I respond.

"Hey…" Sokka exclaims weakly.

Toph smiles. "She is." I answer, moving to hold my hands over as much of the cut on my side as possible to try and keep it from bleeding as much. "I'm gonna go see if I can help Aang. You stay here."

Katara gives me a look that obviously says "you're too weak".

"I'm going." I tell her.

Then I walk off down the hall and stop in front of the of the room. Aang notices me right away. "Did you find Zuko?"

I nod. Aang sighs in relief. "But he's not so good." I add, opening my glider and using it to blast a few masked against the wall, knocking them out.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't explain right now."

"Right. Are you OK? Did they cut you at all?"

I send another blast with my glider, knocking a few more out. "They cut my side and my back. But I'm fine, don't worry about me. Just worry about getting everyone out in one piece."

I lied. I wasn't "fine", I was in almost unbearable pain. But he would only worry more if I told him that, he could get himself killed. "Are you OK?" I ask him.

"They just got me on my right leg. But yeah, I'll be fine."

"OK."

I turn my attention to the masked men. Wow, Aang had gotten down quite a few of them. I put my glider away, close my eyes, and my wings form on my back, once again barely fitting in the large room. I clench my teeth and suck in a breath, trying not scream as my right wing forms over the cut, and dull pain throbs throughout my whole back. I blast a group of masked men against the wall, knocking out five or six. "Aang, behind you!" I shout suddenly.

Aang whirls around just in time to blast a masked man back before he was stabbed. Aang smiles back gratefully.

Me and Aang continue like that for another ten minutes until there are little enough masked men that I can take them on my own. I get tired a lot less easily when my wings are on. It makes me really powerful. "OK Aang, go get the others. I can take these guys by myself long enough so you can get the others into the tunnel." I say.

Aang nods and runs past me, ducking under my wings, and into the tunnel behind me. In a few seconds, he ducks back under my wings with Katara. It's a bit stressful to have all that pressure on you that if you make one wrong move, you could get your friends killed. But, after what seemed like forever, Aang finally gets Katara into the tunnel and comes back for Sokka. After Sokka, Aang gets Toph, then Zuko. Zuko was probably the hardest, because he kept jerking in different dirrections, but finally I moved into the hall behind Aang. I send a huge blast, knocking the whole room of masked men back. As I enter the tunnel, my wings press against the sides of the hall, and disappear. Aang passes Zuko to me, then helps Toph to me, then gets Katara and Sokka himself. So we now each have a person on either side of us, with arms around our shoulders. I send one more big blast with my left foot, then me and Aang start down the hall. Even though we were moving as quickly as we could, it still took us at least five minutes more than before to get back into the earth room we had been trapped in earlier.

Toph kicks her foot into the ground and the all the walls of the box room shoot down, back into the floor and wall. We immediately leave the room and walk through the hall back into the statue room, which we walk through and finally leave outside. Appa and Tiki are both automatically worried, and they meet us in front of the temple building. Momo jumps on top of Aangs head and wraps his tail around Aangs neck, and Cosmo does the same for me. Me and Aang lean the others against Appa and sit in front of them. "Is everyone alright?" Aang asks.

"We're all in one piece." Toph replies.

Aang nods. We all sit for quite a while, breathing heavily. Then Sokka speaks up. "Guys… where's Kuzon?"


	15. Chapter 15: Welcome to Ba Sing Se

I pace back and forth with my hands on the sides of my head, a thousand thoughts running through it. With the next step, searing pain shoots through my back and side, and I fall forward with a scream. I roll onto my left side and clutch my hands over the bleeding cut across my side, however unable to do anything about the one across my back. I breath deeply and squeeze my eyes shut against the pain.

"Are you alright?" I hear Aang ask.

I nod my head silently. After another small while, I open my eyes and slowly sit myself up. I look down and sigh, ignoring the continuous pain. _'What have I done?'_ I think. _'He's gonna die in there! He'll never make it, and it's all my fault! I didn't even think about him. What's wrong with me, I didn't even think about him!'_ I reach my hands up and dig them both into my hair, not caring that they both have blood on them still from my side, and I start crying. "What have I done…" I mutter. I look up when I hear someone talking to me again. But this time it isn't Aang, it's Katara.

"You can't blame yourself, Elian." She says.

"Yeah." Sokka adds. "For once I agree with my sister."

"This isn't your fault." Aang agrees.

I look up at them. "I'm not the victim here." I say. "Kuzon is."

"Don't forget crazy over here." Toph says, holding back a screaming and pulling Zuko.

I shake my head. "What did your sister tell you?"

Everyone looks right at me. "Azula?" The all ask in unison.

"That's what it sounded like." I say. "I couldn't see anything, but she said 'our uncle'. Who else could it be?" Zuko flicks his head towards me, looks me dead in the eye, and shakes it. I tilt my head in confusion. "It wasn't your sister?" Zuko screams, his eyes flicking back and forth. He almost looked normal again for a minute, but now his crazy look was back. "What is that supposed to mean?" I ask.

"Now isn't the time to worry. We all need rest." Katara says.

I flick my head in her direction. "You say that like there's nothing to worry about! Kuzon could be dead any minute, and Zuko's gone crazy! We can't just ignore this!"

"She didn't say there's nothing to worry about, she just said we need rest." Toph said.

I sigh. "You're probably right." I say, thrilled at the thought of some good rest.

* * *

It's been nearly a week since we escaped the masked men, and we've all been having some much needed relaxation. We've each had at least two healing sessions with Katara, and she healed the burns on Aang's hands during his first. We're all pretty much healed from the damage the masked men did, the cuts on my side and back having been reduced to mere marks. The only one that hasn't gotten any better is Zuko. He, in fact, has gotten a lot worse. I wish I could do something for him.

"Elian?"

"Yeah?" I call back to Aang.

"Are you ready for some training?"

I smile. Something to get my mind off of Zuko and Kuzon would be great. "Uh-hu." I get up and leave my tent, then join Aang to a more open area, right outside of camp, where nothing will get damaged on accident.

"How have you been?" He asks me.

"In what way?" I respond laughing.

Aang joins in on my laughter, then responds. "Altogether."

I sigh. "I never knew my life could change so much in only a few months."

"I totally get it! I felt the same way."

"So what are we starting with?" I ask.

"Hmm… meditation? "

I nod.

* * *

Me and Aang had spent most of the day training, but had stopped once it got dark so we could get something to eat. After that, we decided to stop for the day.

Training did really good for me. It was great to get my mind off of things, and just concentrate on that. There was one question that I couldn't shake, though. "What'r we gonna do next?"

"Well, we need to be somewhere we can safely practice." Aang says.

"Somewhere people aren't hunting us down." Sokka says with annoyance in his voice.

"It's got to be far away." Toph says.

"But not too far." I add.

"How about Ba Sing Se?" Katara suggests.

"Sounds great. Wad'a ya think, Aang?" I say.

"Sounds great."

"You guys-" I start to Toph and Sokka.

"-OK with that?" Aang finishes.

Toph points behind me. I'm about to turn when I hear a scream, that sounds more like sudden laughter than an actual scream, and I turn around quickly as the scream fades to insane laughter, and Zuko falls onto the ground behind me, not moving an inch except for the gentle rise and fall of his chest, and tears start to run down his cheeks while he continues to laugh. I'm left completely frozen, unable to move myself an inch, and I feel tears start building up in the corners of my eyes as I stare helplessly at the pitiful sight.

* * *

We're just arriving at Ba Sing Se now. We left Appa and Tiki in a special enclosure in a Zoo in the Agrarian Zone where Aang had to assure me many times that a friend named Kenji would take good care of Tiki. Momo followed along with us in his own ways, but for the entirety of the trip, Cosmo was on my left shoulder with his tail behind my neck and laying over the front of my right shoulder, where he still sits.

With Toph and Aang both, we easily got tickets for the monorail system, and they actually gave us our own section on the train! Though I think that might just have been because there were a lot of us. "It was a lot different last time I was here." I say.

Aang nods. "The war changed a lot."'

I sigh. _'This war was worse than I thought.'_ I think. The train then slowed and made a hissing sound as it stopped.

Since it's my fault he got like this in the first place, I've been making it my job to watch Zuko. He's just been getting worse. Everyone else leaves the training before me and Zuko.

I stand, bringing Zuko with me, and start walking towards the door. "I need to find him… need to get back…" Zuko whispers.

I ignore him. He whispers nonsense like that all the time. It doesn't really mean anything, as far as I know. "Where… nothing… gone… he's gone…" Zuko then starts to laugh again.

I walk out of the train and follow the others into the upper class ring street. Katara speaks first. "I wonder what happened to Iroh's tea shop."

"The Jasmine Dragon." Aang says.

Katara nods. "This it?" I ask, pointing to a flyer.

Everyone gathers around it. "This looks pretty new." Sokka says.

Toph nods. "It's still open?"

I shrug. "It could be closed now. This flyer could just be clean, not new."

"Let's find out." Aang says.

A few minutes later, we stand in front of the Jasmine Dragon. It's definitely still open. We all exchange confused looks with each other, then walk inside. No sooner than the door closes behind us, someone is suddenly standing in front of us. The man has short, unruly, dark brown hair that spikes out in all directions and eyes that are the exact same color as Zuko's. He looked to be about thirty or so years old. "Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon." He says. "I'm Kyro, and I'll be your host."


	16. Chapter 16: The return of Rajah

No one knew how to react. Who is this man? And why does he look like Zuko? "It would be better if I explained a few things to you in another room." He says. "Away from the other guests."

Zuko's eyes fill with emotion, memories, and tears at seeing and hearing the strange man. I look curiously over at Zuko. "Rajah…" He asks weakly.

Kyro smiles. "And this must be Zuko then. You've changed since I last saw you."

Zuko laughs. But this time the laugh is different. It's not because he was crazy, or because he didn't know what else to do, no, this time… he was laughing out of pure joy. Zuko leaves me and runs crying and smiling joyfully into Kyro's arms, and Kyro returns the hug just as happily. He looks meaningfully at us. "As I said, it would be better if I explained in another room." I nod.

"How come Zuko can't be in here? Can he not hear what you're telling us?" I ask.

Kyro shakes his head. "No, no, nothing like that. I just think it might be easier to explain it all when he's not here. No one likes it when others talk about them like they're not there, when they are. But it's not secret to Zuko what I'm telling you."

"How does Zuko know you?" Me and Aang ask in unison.

"Maybe we can start with something a bit… simpler, like…"

Toph cuts him off. "Why did he call you Rajah?"

"Exactly like that!" He says laughing. "He called me Rajah because that's my name."

"But- just a minute ago you said-" Sokka says.

"I know, I know. That's what I tell everyone."

"You don't want people to know who you are?" Katara asks.

"Exactly!" He exclaims. "It's a secret that I'm still alive, ya know. Not even Zuko knew."

"How does Zuko know you then?" I ask.

After a moment of hesitation, Rajah answers. "One doesn't easily forget his uncle, does he?"

Silence. "W-what?" Aang stutters. "You're his… his uncle?"

"Zuko never told us he had another uncle." Katara says.

"He probably didn't find the need to talk about someone who he thought dead. He's not much of a _feelings_ person." Everyone shakes their heads in agreement. "He was only four." Rajah says suddenly.

"What?" Me and Aang ask, once again in unison.

"Zuko was four when I supposedly died."

"Did you know him well?" I ask.

Rajah chuckles happily. "We were inseparable." He says.

"And you haven't seen each other since?" Katara asks.

"He hasn't seen me, but I've seen him. I've seen most of you, actually."

Our only answers are some strange looks. "You've been following us?" Sokka asks.

"Please don't take this the wrong way. I just wanted to see him. If I could talk to him, or let him know I was there, I at least wanted to see him. It has been a while, though. It's been long enough that I haven't had the chance of seeing you yet." He says to me.

Before I can respond, Toph speaks up. "So you've been following us so you can spy on Zuko? Now that's just weird."

"But apparently it's fine because, it's been a while." Katara says mockingly.

"You all have every right to be angry with me." He says. "But please understand. I wasn't following him the whole time. But after what happened with his father…"

"You mean with…" I ask, lightly gesturing to my face.

He nods. "I had to see him after that. And once I saw him once…" He sighs. "It wasn't long until I just couldn't keep myself away. He's gone through a lot."

"Do you know about Iroh?" I ask.

He nods grimly. "He told me before he left to find you guys. He was the only one that knew about me."

"What about Ozai?" I ask. "I know Ozai wasn't a good guy, but he was still your brother."

Rajah shakes his head. "Ozai stopped being my brother a long time ago. The Ozai you know isn't the one I did. I figured that out when I got these." He then dipped his hand in a bucket of water and started to rub makeup off his face, arms, and legs to reveal multiple scars, not very bad ones though.

"W-what happened?" I ask.

"I was in line for the throne, but Ozai wanted it, and I knew he wasn't fit. I knew he wouldn't make a good firelord. It didn't take too long before an Agni Kai was set up. That's when I learned he wasn't the same person anymore. The Ozai I knew would never have acted so recklessly."

I then get an idea. "Did Ozai have any other children? Besides Zuko and Azula?"

"No." He responds simply.

"Iroh?" I ask.

"None that are currently with us."

"You?" I ask finally.

He closes his eyes, sighs, then opens them again. "Four. Akunia, Nupira, Ikasa, and Shalia. How much trouble have they caused you?" He finishes, his voice catching on the last words.

I look at the others while I piece the information together. If that wasn't his sister I heard talking back with the masked men, could it have been one of these? One of his cousins? And if it was, that means… "They have one of our friends."

Rajah closes his eyes. "Oh my. What have they done? I didn't think it would get this serious. "

"You didn't think what would get this serious?" Aang asks.

"Wait one minute, Zuko might want to hear this." Then he leaves. Nearly ten minutes later, he returns with a silent but sane looking Zuko. "Originally, if something were to happen to me and Ozai before the children were eighteen, we were gonna set it up so that one of Ozai's children and one of mine would each rule one half of the fire nation, so there wouldn't be too much pressure on either of them. Things happened and it was decided that my second oldest, Nupira, would be the one to rule to rule one half. Since then, she thought of herself as only the best." He says the next part to Aang. "As you might guess, it didn't go well when you appeared to save us. She didn't like how much attention was going to you rather than to her, even though in the fire palace it wasn't good attention. She became reckless and her anger and jealousy overtook her. I saw all of them try to help her, to snap her out of it. But nothing they did worked. Not too long after, she just left. And two months after that, her sisters disappeared too. I figured that when you defeated my brother, she would snap from the attention you would get. I guess I was right."

Silence again. "Why didn't you ever tell us you had another uncle? And cousins?" Katara asks Zuko.

"It didn't matter!" He exclaims. "I thought you were dead!" He says angrily to Rajah. "And as far as I knew, they were too." After more silence, Zuko speaks to Rajah with misty eyes. "Why did you leave?"

"I'm so sorry, Zuko." Rajah answers. "But I had to. If I didn't leave, Ozai would most likely have come back to finish me off. If I survived that, I would have had to leave like I did anyway, but then he would go after you and Azula, Ursa, my children. He already killed your aunt trying to find me. It was the only way to keep you safe."

"He killed your wife so he could do an Agni Kai with you?" I ask.

"Do you think I would willingly fight my brother in a death battle for the throne?" He turns to Zuko. "You were the only thing that kept me going Zuko. Knowing that someday, maybe, I would be able to meet you again and set things straight. I know it must have been difficult to say goodbye to him, Zuko. I tried to talk your uncle out of it many times, but he wouldn't listen. There were only a few times that I almost convinced him out of it, and each time, the only way I got as far as I did was to talk of you. Of how it badly it would affect you. I miss him too. More than you could know." Rajah holds his arms out.

Tears stream down Zuko's cheeks and he collapses into Rajah's arms, sobbing. Rajah wrapps his arms around Zuko and rubs his back comfortingly. "It'll be alright Zuko." He whispers. "It'll be alright."


	17. Chapter 17: We have a plan

We all wait in the hall outside the room we had just been in. Rajah said that Zuko and him needed some time to talk, just them. It was pretty much quiet except for the occasional shout or scream, which was done by Zuko. I'm not sure how long we waited there, but I know it was quite a while later when they finally came out. "Let's get right down to business." Rajah says. "You said they have your friend?"

I nod. "His name is Kuzon."

"Do you have any idea of where they might have taken him?"

I nod again. "We know where he is."

"Well let's go then. Lead the way." He says.

"We can't, we need more practice. We barely got out alive last time we were there. Anyway, what about your shop?"

"A friend helps me run the shop. I just have to tell him I'm leaving. As for the first thing, I don't think you need practice as much as you need a good plan. With a good solid plan, you can do almost anything."

"Do you have one?"

"Not yet." He says. "I'll need to know what ingredients we have before I can make a meal. Let's just focus on getting there first."

I nod. "I'm in. For Kuzon." I hold my hand in front of me and, one by one, everyone else puts their hand on top of mine. "For Kuzon!" We all say, bringing our hands above our heads.

* * *

After Rajah tells his friend that he's leaving for a while, he meets us outside. As soon as we get outside, Cosmo, who I had left outside in case they didn't like animals in the shop, jumps onto my left shoulder and wraps his tail around to my right one. "Who is this?" Rajah asks.

I smile. "This is Cosmo."

He reaches out to pet Cosmo and Cosmo sniffs his hand, lets him pet his head, then jumps to my right shoulder, letting his tail lay down my back, alongside my hair. "He looks a lot like Momo. They're the same species, right?"

Me and Aang nod. "You know who Momo is?" Aang asks while Momo jumps down beside Rajah, tilts his head to the side, and males a soft chirping.

"I've seen him and Appa a time or two, and I've heard you talk of them."

"Speaking of," I say, "We have to go back and get them."

Aang nods. "That's our next stop."

"Them?" Rajah asks.

"I have one too."

"Well let's go get them then." He says.

* * *

We enter the enclosure and Kenji bends it closed behind us. Appa and Tiki are both there, laying together, Appa curled protectively around Tiki. "Tiki, we're back!" I exclaim excitedly.

Tiki stands, shakes, then runs up to me and crashes into me, nearly knocking me over, while Appa runs up to Aang. "You ready to fly, Tiki?" I ask, hugging the side of her head. She groans in response. "Tiki can't hold too many people, but I think she can do two other than me, right Tiki?" She groans. "Three it is then! Tiki can take the girls, and Appa can take the boys. Sound good Aang?"

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

We land in the clearing in front of the small temple. "The entrance is in the back of this temple." I say.

"And past that?"

"Past that is a room with three hallways. Two of them, we know where they lead, but the third, the one Kuzon went into, we haven't seen yet."

"So," said Rajah, "we have two options. One, where we don't know where to look, but we know the path, or two, where we know we'll find him, but we don't the path."

"Which one do we take?"

"Which one do you think?" He asks me.

"Well… the second way we _could_ be killed before we even know what's going on, but if we do go that way, we know for sure we'll find Kuzon, and if we go the first way, we could be searching for hours and could get killed before we find him anyway. "

"So?"

After a moment's pause, I answer. "I think we're ready to go the second way. But we'll have to be really quiet. We can't let them know we're here." Everyone nods. "Let's go. Cosmo, you stay out here." Cosmo jumps onto Tiki and curls up on her head. I smile. "Good boy." Then we all walk into the dimly lit temple building. I can't help but stare at the statue of me and Aang as we walk past, but I pull my eyes away as soon as we pass it, and we all continue through the temple and through the hall in the back. We enter the room where me, Aang, and Kuzon had been trapped before, and everyone pauses. "That's where we saw Kuzon last." I say, pointing at the closed box on the left. Toph shifts her foot and the walls of the box slide into the floor. We all walk up to the dark hallway and look into it. "Is everyone ready?" I ask. Everyone nods.

Fifteen minutes later I hear a scream and freeze. "Did you guys hear that?" I ask.

"We heard it alright." Sokka says.

"Is everyone here?" Aang asks.

"Calm down guys. One of these masked-pinheads was after us so I got him out. Keep going, I'll hold 'em back." Toph says.

"Guys, look!" I exclaim a while later, pointing at the light. "We're almost there!"

We hurry forward until we stand by the torch on the wall. Down the hall is nothing but more torches and a right turn. We run around the corner, then immediately run back and stand against the wall. "Me and Sokka will hold them back. Just run past and go find Kuzon." Katara whispers.

We all run around the corner and Sokka and Katara automatically attack the masked men while we easily slip past them.

After a left turn and a little ways down the hall, we stop when we run past a doorway to a room with five or six masked men in it. "Go!" Rajah says, turning around while they start to come out of the room.

Another while and we run through a room with five masked men in it. "I got these guys!" Zuko says while we keep running.

Finally, me and Aang stop in front of a big metal door. "I'll keep watch out here." Aang says. "Go in and get Kuzon."

I nod, then open the door and walk inside, letting it close behind me.


	18. Chapter 18: The secret revealed

**So… today is a big day, my friends! As the name might imply, this is kind of a really important chapter. So get prepared, 'cause it's gonna be a wild ride from here on out! Don't forget to leave a review!**

I cover my mouth with my hands and shake my head. "Oh, Kuzon…" I say. "Oh my… Kuzon!" He's in the middle of the room with cuffs on his hands and chains connecting to the wall hold his arms outwards. His feet are unchained and he hangs limply with his knees slightly bent. He opens both his eyes and lifts his head. I walk up to him and untie the strip around his mouth, then and toss it aside.

"Get out of here Elian. You can't be here, hurry, before they come back. Get out while you can!"

"I won't leave without you, Kuzon. What did they do to you?" I ask, looking at the long red marks on his skin that were obviously from something hitting him repeatedly.

"It doesn't matter what they did to me, what matters is what they'll do to you if they catch you here! Are any of the others here? Did you find them?"

"We found the others, and they're all here, but… Oh, Kuzon, I'm so, so sorry! This is all my fault!"

"Woah, woah, slow down Elian. _None of this your fault._ I mean it." He says, smiling warmly.

I pause for a few seconds, then I wrap my arms around Kuzon and squeeze myself against him. "I'm so sorry." I mutter, crying. _'It must have been terrible for him, being locked up here for days while they do who knows what, not knowing when anyone was coming to get him out.'_

Kuzon takes in a breath to speak, but instead rests his head on my shoulder. "I'm really glad you're here, Elian. I… I was so scared." He mutters.

I hug him tighter and start to rub up and down his back. "I'm here now, I'm here." I say while he starts to cry.

After nearly a minute, I pull back. "I need to get you out of here." I say, examining the cuff around his left wrist.

"You need a key."

I sigh. "We don't have time to need a key." I look at him. "I'll find a way to get you out of here." I say, brushing his hair aside and letting my hand rest on the side of his head.

Kuzon tenses up while I rub my thumb over his cheek. My voice abandons me while his bright green eyes stare into my grey ones. "You have to leave." He says, not moving an inch.

"I won't leave you." I respond stubbornly, captivated by his gentle eyes. My heart beats uncontrollably and I obey the strange feeling, slowly leaning closer, the distance between my face and his dwindling gradually. Before long, my lips are an inch from his and his freckle-covered cheeks are a deeper red than I've ever seen them.

He breathes a few deep and very nervous breaths. "YouAndAangAreTwins!" He blurts out all at once, squeezing his eyes shut.

I pull back and freeze. It seems in this moment that everything inside me is completely and utterly frozen and I'm left still and silent. Tears start to stream down Kuzon's cheeks.

"What… what did you say?" I couldn't have heard him correctly.

"I'm so sorry. I-I couldn't tell you… please! I'm so sorry!"

"What did you say?" I ask again.

After a moment of hesitation, he answers. "I said that you and Aang are twins." At seeing my facial expression, he repeats himself. "Yes, twins."

"Me?" I stutter. "A-a-and Aang?"

"I'm _so so_ sorry Elian." He says, crying harder.

I look down and shake my head. "You're joking or _something_ … right?"

Kuzon stays silent for a while longer. "I'm sorry."

I'm silent for a long while after that. "We'll talk about this later." I say, still flustered. "With the others. For now, we just need to get you out of here."

A knock then echoes from the door. I relax with a sigh when I hear Aang's voice yell out from behind it. "The others are here now, but you have to hurry up. Do you need help?"

I look at Kuzon for a second. "No, I don't need any help. Just a minute longer, I've almost gotten it." I don't know if Aang responds after that, because then I turn all my attention to the chains. "I have an idea." I say.

"Do whatever you need to do." He says

"You need your hands covered." I just now notice that his sleeves have been ripped off.

"With what?"

"Anything would do, I just don't feel comfortable doing this with your hands uncovered."

"There's nothing in here." He says. My eyes then lock on something as an idea pops into my head. Kuzon looks down. "Oh, no."

The now shirtless Kuzon blushes deeply while I straighten his fingers and wrap a strip of fabric around them. "A-are you almost done?" Kuzon asks nervously.

"Just a minute." I respond. I pull the last strip tight. "There. Now hold still." I step back and take a deep breath. My eyes and tattoos flash and Kuzon closes his eyes while my wings form, curling to fit in the small room. I get myself into the correct stance, take a deep breath, and shoot my arm forwards. The chain is engulfed in hot flame, and takes no longer than ten seconds to turn bright red, and ten seconds after turn orange. Another ten seconds and the chain starts to slowly change shape, and I stop firebending. Breathing heavily, I grab the chain on either side of the red area and kick it in between my hands, causing it to snap. Kuzon drops his arm and stands. "Are you alright?" I ask him.

Kuzon nods. "G-good thing we wrapped my hands, though." He says, holding up his hand. The fabric wrapped around it is singed and black.

"Sorry." I say, moving to the other chain. I take a deep breath, look to make sure I'm not too close to his hand this time, get myself into the correct stance, and shoot my arm forwards. As soon as the chain is hot enough, I stop firebending, grab the chain, and kick it, once again causing it to snap. Kuzon lowers his arm and shakes the fabric off of both his hands. My eyes and tattoos flash again and my wings disappear. I rush up to Kuzon. "Are you OK?" I ask again. He nods. I walk over to the door, but turn when Kuzon doesn't follow me. "Kuzon?"

He blushes. "I…" He stutters, looking down at his bare chest. "But…"

"Now isn't the time to be self-conscious Kuzon. Come on, we have to get out of here."

Kuzon nods. I open the door and Kuzon follows me out. "I couldn't get rid of the cuffs, but we'll have to deal with that later. We have to get out of here, now."

Everyone nods and we run back down the hall. We run back through the room Zuko had fought in, past the doorway to the small room where Rajah had stopped, back to the first torch, and down the hall. We didn't stop once until we were back outside the temple. For a few minutes, the only sound that came out of anyone's mouths was that of their heavy breathing. "Hey Toph," I say, gesturing to Kuzon, "do you think you can get rid of those cuffs?"

Toph stands up and Kuzon holds his hands out. "No problem." She says, bringing her hands in front of her. Kuzon closes his eyes and Toph clenches her hands into fists, and both cuffs snap and fall to the ground.

"I'm Rajah, by the way." Rajah says.

Kuzon doesn't answer, instead choosing to study the ground. "I think Kuzon has something he needs to tell all of you." I say angrily. "Don't you, Kuzon?"

Kuzon blushes. "C-can I get a shirt first?" He asks, laughing nervously.


	19. Chapter 19: An explanation

Sokka had given Kuzon a shirt to borrow, which was a bit big on him, but fit nonetheless. It was dark blue with white rims and short sleeves.

"So… you were saying?" I ask Kuzon angrily.

Kuzon looks down and gulps nervously. "Um…" He mutters.

' _That little… useless, selfish… he won't even say it in front of the others!'_ I think in frustration. " _Um_ what, Kuzon?!"

Kuzon flinches back. "I… I just…"

I grab Kuzon by the arm and pull him against me, tightly holding him. He tries to push back, but I don't let him. "I'll let you go if you tell them!" Kuzon ignores me, and instead tries harder to push away. "Tell them!" I say while the wind starts to pick up in circular motions around us. The wind picks up fast and is soon a weak tornado around me and Kuzon. Kuzon pushes and struggles against me. "Tell them what you told me!"

After a bit more struggling, Kuzon says "OK, OK! I'll them them, just let me go!"

I immediately let go of him, stop the wind, and cross my arms. Everyone else stays in a stunned silence. "Well?!" I mutter to Kuzon.

Kuzon steps away from me. "Um… right, I…" He turns towards the others.

"Say it, Kuzon!"

Kuzon takes a deep breath and turns to Aang. "I'm really, _really_ sorry I didn't tell you before, but, um…" He takes another deep breath. "You and Elian are twins."

After a stunned moment, Aang responds. "What… what did you say?"

Kuzon looks down shamefully. "I'm really really sorry, Aang."

"You said…" Kuzon nods shamefully, with an obvious look of guilt on his face. Aang turns to me. "You knew?"

"He told me when I was getting him out."

Kuzon blushes shamefully. "I'm really sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

"How could… Gyotso said I didn't have any direct family." Aang said.

"They thought that having a twin would mess your training as the avatar." Kuzon responded.

"Is that why they always controlled everywhere I went? And why they were so thrilled and so willing to let me go when I decided to live on my own island?"

Kuzon nodded. "That would make sense. They really didn't want you guys to know. They already didn't do family, for what I've heard, and then you being the avatar on top of that… anyway, I think it was more of a job at first, but later I think it might have just been that no one wanted to be the one to tell either of you, knowing that you'd be mad about it and all."

"And how do _you_ know this?" I ask.

"My dad told me. And my grandad told my dad. And my grandad knew because, since you guys were friends, the airbenders made him promise not to tell either of you about the other. They had all of your friends promise that if they met the other they wouldn't say anything. They were really set on keeping it a secret. At least, that's what dad told me grandad said."

"Did the monks know about my powers?"

Kuzon shakes his head. "I don't know for sure, but I don't think anyone knew about your powers. They never showed up 'till now, right?"

"They didn't show until after I woke up." Suddenly I'm reminded of something. "That makes me think… what time of day was it when you froze?" I ask Aang.

"Night. Why?"

"I think _I_ froze because you did."

"What?"

"If I happened to get these powers I have from being the twin of the avatar, it would make sense that my powers might have sensed that were in a state of stasis and tried to fix it by freezing me too."

"I guess it does make sense." Aang says. "But why were you in the water?"

"Huh?"

"Why were you in the water so late? When you were frozen?"

"I wasn't. The water came to us."

"The water came to you?"

"It was really sudden. Me and Tiki and Cosmo were just enjoying the weather I guess, stargazing, and we were about to go to sleep, and… the water came to us. It just pulled us in!"

"Weird. Hey, maybe this all has something to do with why the ice exploded like it did!"

"What?"

Before Aang could respond, Kuzon cut him off. "Sorry to interrupt you guys, but can this wait until later?"

"What is it?!" I snap. I haven't forgiven him for keeping it from us for so long.

He flinches back. "Um… there's more."

I glare at him. How could there be more? What more could there possibly be? "What do you mean, _there's more?_ "

"Sorry." He says again. "To start, Appa and Tiki are from the mother."

"What?!" Me and Aang exclaimed excitedly.

"Uh-hu." Kuzon responds, smiling. "Appa and Tiki are siblings."

"No way!" Me and Aang exclaim, grinning at the bison.

"B-but on more serious matters, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" Aang asks, sensing the seriousness in Kuzon's voice.

Kuzon takes a deep breath. "I know why the masked men are after you."

I give Rajah a meaningful look. "Their leaders-"

"Nupira." Kuzon says. "I learned a thing or two when I was there. Nupira heads everything up and her three sisters help. The one called Akunia is head over the prisoners."

' _That's probably who I heard talking to Zuko.'_ I think. "They're Zuko's cousins." I say. "Rajah's daughters." Kuzon blinks in surprise. "You said you know why they're after us?"

Kuzon nods. "It's because you guys are more powerful than you know." He says to me and Aang.

"How?" I ask.

"You have a power. Other than the avatar state, and the wings, and the four elements."

"Other than-"

Kuzon nods. "Another power. You have a spirit form."

"What?!" Me and Aang shout in unison.

"A spirit form. That you can only turn into when you're in your powerful forms, for you it's the avatar state, and for you it's when your wings are on. A-an it's really, really, _reeaally_ powerful."

"More powerful than the avatar state?" Aang asks fearfully.

Kuzon nods. "A lot more powerful than the avatar state." Aang shudders at the thought. "That's why they're after you. If you guys figure out how to control it, there'll be no way Nupira'll ever get take over the fire nation, which I think is what she's after."

"She wants to rule a half of it."

"Right. And she won't be able to do that if you figure out how to control your spirit form."

"A spirit. We can turn into spirit!" I say to Aang.

Aang shakes his head. "This is impossible! No one's ever been able to turn into a spirit before, have they?"

"No avatar's ever had a twin before." Kuzon says.

After a moment of silence, me and Aang look at each other and nod. "Me and Aang need to talk. Alone." Me and Aang say, each saying the others name.


	20. Chapter 20: Flying 101

Me and Aang have gone into the temple, leaving the others outside. "You think he's telling the truth?" I ask.

"Would he lie about something like this?"

"He's lied about it up until now."

Aang looks down. "If he's telling the truth, it all lines up. Everything makes sense." He says after a small while.

"Everything?"

"Just think about it." Aang says. "It tells us why you have wings."

"How?"

"The avatar cycle is really powerful, but it's not all knowing. If we are… twins, then that would explain why you have similar powers to an avatar. That would mean you got them from me."

"Yes, but it still doesn't explain why I got wings rather than just inheriting the avatar state."

Aang sits in thought for a while, then he gasps. "Have you ever specifically liked wings?"

"Well, I've always liked the idea of flying altogether, and I've always found it interesting how creatures fly without airbending."

"That's it!"

"What?"

"That's why you have wings."

"What? Why?"

"Well, I can't say for sure, but I think I might have just figured out why you have wings. What if you're making them? Ya know, without knowing it. Maybe you've been forming the wings on your own and you just didn't know it? Or maybe, when you activate your powerful form, you always form _something_ and you've always subconsciously chose to form wings!"

"Do you think then, that I can make other things? Something other than wings?"

"Maybe. Try it."

"What should I make?"

"I don't know. Whatever you want."

We both think. "Hmm… oh, oh, I've got an idea!" I exclaim.

"Me too!"

"A tail!" We both exclaim. We pause, look at each other, and burst into laughter.

"OK, I'm gonna try this now." I say, sitting down cross legged.

After twenty seconds, I see a flash of light and open my eyes to see a long, thin tail curling in front of me. The chameleon-like tail has the same pattern as my wings. The closest to me is earth, the middle is water, and the end is fire. I stand up excitedly. "It worked!" I exclaim, swinging my curled up tail back and forth behind me.

"This is so cool!" Aang exclaims.

"I wanna try something." I close my eyes and take a deep breath. A few moments later, I open them to see the last of my tail disappearing and the last of my wings forming. "Yes!"

Aang smiles. "By the way, I feel the same."

"About what?"

"About wings. In general. It's always interested me how other creatures can without airbending. With wings."

"You wanna try?"

"Try what?"

"Flying with wings! If I can do it, you probably can too!"

"How?"

"I've got an idea. Try making the shape you want, then go into the avatar state."

"The… the avatar state?" He asks nervously.

"Look, I know it's not your favorite thing, but you can control it now, right? We'll never know if you can do it or not if you don't try."

Aang holds his nervous look a bit longer, than nods. "I guess you're right. OK, I'll do it. I need to go get something to use, though."

Before he can walk to the door, I grab the back of his shirt to stop him. "I've got resources." I say, flapping my wings.

"You can't bend your own wings, can you?"

I shrug. "I've wanted to try it for a while now." I steady my nervously shaking hands and slowly bend a small amount of earth out of my wings. To my surprise, the earth builds itself back. Even more surprisingly, it doesn't hurt. I smile, then bend out a larger amount of earth and drop it while my wings build back again. "I wonder if you can bend it." I say to Aang.

Aang shakes his head. "I don't- I'm not sure that's a good-"

"Just try it. C'mon."

Aang takes a deep breath, then nods. He holds his hands out. After a bit of hesitation, he slowly and nervously bends a small amount of earth out of my wings. "See? It works! And it doesn't hurt, I promise. It feels a bit weird, but it doesn't hurt."

"Are you sure?"

I nod. "Go on." I say. He gives me a hesitant look, as if to say 'this is awkward'. "It's alright, go ahead."

Aang continues, only bending small amounts of earth at a time. In the meantime, I start to collect water from the middle section of my wings. After Aang finishes with the earth, I move the large bubble of water in front of me and smile. "Are you really OK with this?" Aang asks.

I nod and bend the water forwards, urging him to start. While holding up the earth with one hand, he uses the other to start taking small amounts of water and arranges it in almost feathered patterns below the arch of earth on either side. Soon he's done creating the shape he wants for his wings, which are a lot smaller than mine, and he uses both hands to hold them up. "You can do this Aang." I say. "I'm right here for you." Aang nods, then closes his eyes. No longer than twenty seconds after, his tattoos start glowing and he opens his eyes to reveal that they're glowing as well. "You alright there?" I ask. He lowers his hands and his wings stay in the same place. "Can you control them?" His wings shift slightly and he nods. "Try leaving now." The second after I say it, his eyes and tattoos stop glowing and he stumbles while he regains his balance. "It works!" I exclaim. I pull him into a quick hug. "You did it Aang, it works! You have wings!"

Aang smiles. "I have wings!"

"Magnificent." Rajah says.

I turn around to see the others all standing in the doorway. "What… what did you do?" Kuzon asks dumbfoundedly.

"Get out of the way." I say, tipping my wings.

Realizing what I'm about to do and knowing that they can't stop me, the others quickly step away from the doorway. I grab Aang's hand and run straight out of the temple. "What are you-" Aang starts. Aang screams as I rise of the ground, pulling him with me. "What are you doing?!" He screams, tucking his wings against him. The only thing holding him up now are my arms around his stomach and chest.

"You said you would try it!" I tell him.

"This is not what I meeaant!"

"Just try, Aang!" I say, laughing. "Try flying on your own! Copy me!"

Aang looks up at me and after a while he hesitantly spreads his wings out under me. He slowly starts to move them, and I smile as he speeds them up, and in no time he's flapping them in perfect sync to mine. As soon as I start to feel his weight lift from my arms, I loosen my grip. "What are you doing?" Aang asks nervously.

"It's OK Aang, I'm right here." I respond, loosening my grip further.

"Just don't let go, OK?" Aang asks a few moments later.

"I'm not holding on, Aang!"

"What?!" Aang exclaims, continuing to fly under me. "You're flying Aang! You're flying on your own! With wings!"

Aang screams excitedly. "Woo! I'm flying!" He screams. "With wiiiings!" We both laugh happily.


	21. Chapter 21: Back where it all started

We crash roughly onto the ground, not too far from the temple clearing. We both moan and sit up. "This can't be happening." Aang says.

"I know!" I exclaim, laughter still lingering in my thoat. Our expressions grow serious as we once again think of the scene from earlier. "Aang."

"We're twins."

"We're twins." I repeat. "I guess that explains it, huh?"

"Huh?"

"I always felt alone. And not just because I lived alone on an island. Even when Gyotso was there, I always felt lonely somehow, but I could never put my finger on it. Maybe it's because, subconsciously, I wanted to be with you."

"Twins do have a different connection than most people."

"Hey, Aang."

"What is it?"

"What were you saying earlier when you said that the ice exploded?"

"Well, when I found you, I just touched the ice and… it was weird. The four nation's symbols just carved themselves into the ice and it just… exploded. It all turned to water and came straight for me."

"You're right, that is weird." I say. "Why do you think it did that?"

"Well, I've been really thinking about this, and I have an idea that when the ice exploded, that was when you got your powers."

"Why would I have not gotten them until then?"

"That's about as far as I got. It could be because we were near each other."

I shake my head. "That doesn't seem too logical to me."

Aang sighs. "Me neither. I'm just throwing around ideas."

"Maybe they just never showed up earlier? No reason?"

"Yeah, maybe. But maybe there is a reason. Maybe there's something important that we're missing."

I sigh. "I bet Bumi would know how to figure this out."

Aang gasps. "That's a great idea, Elian! That's a really great idea."

I look at him confusedly. "What is?"

"We should go see Bumi!"

I grin. "We definitely should!"

"C'mon, let's go find the others!"

* * *

Me and Aang run into the clearing, wide smiles on our faces. Everyone turns to look at us. "Where have you been?!" Katara exclaims while we run up to them. "And what is this?!" She adds, gesturing to Aang's wings.

Aang shakes his wings and looks back at them. "I should probably get rid of those for now."

"Good idea, Aang." I close my eyes and my wings disappear.

Aang turns to me. "Um… how exactly do I get rid of them?"

Kuzon looks angrily from one of us to the other. "You mean you… did _this_ and you don't even know to take them off?!"

"Well…" Me and Aang mutter.

"We just did it as a test." I say. "We really didn't think it would work!"

Aang nudges me. "Do you think we can get rid of them without going into the avatar state again?"

I think. "I have an idea, if you really want to try it, but it might hurt."

Aang takes a deep breath and nods. "Try it."

"I step behind him and hold my hands out. I take a deep breath. "Are you ready?"

Aang nods. "What are you gonna do?" Kuzon asks.

"Something that I can't do if you're talking." I snap. "Are you ready, Aang?"

"Yeah." Aang screams as I twist my hands and clench my fists and his wings fall as mere earth and water to the ground. He breathes heavy, pained breaths.

"Are you OK?" Katara asks quickly.

Aang nods. "It just… hurt." He says with a smile.

"I'm sorry, Aang. If I had known it was gonna hurt like that, I wouldn't have-"

"-I don't want to go into the avatar state any more than I have to."

"A-alright. Well, me and Aang wanted to talk to Bumi about a few things."

"We're going back to Omashu?" Zuko asks.

Me and Aang smile pleadingly. I hear a few sighs. "Omashu it is, then?" I ask.

"Omashu it is." Katara says.

* * *

Once we got there, the guards let us all in immediately. They told us to wait in the first room while one of them went to Bumi.

It doesn't take more than a minute and the guard returns with Bumi close behind. "Welcome back!" Bumi says.

Me and Aang catch his attention with serious and almost angry expressions. "We need to talk." I say.

Bumi raises an eyebrow and nods, then looks over at Kuzon who offers him a nervous smile. "Bring him along."

I glance over momentarily. "Kuzon?! Of all people, why would we bring _him_?"

"You have the right to be angry, Elian. But that doesn't make it OK. You know he didn't choose."

I look down. "Fine. Kuzon, you're coming with!"

Kuzon looks alertly at hearing his name. "What?"

"Come on!"

He quickly follows us down the hall and into a small room. "Why am I here?" He asks.

"You told them, didn't you?" Bumi asks. Kuzon looks down and nods shamefully. "Then this conversation involves you."

"Alright."

"So?" Bumi asks me and Aang.

"How come my powers didn't show up before? Me and Aang think that I got my powers when Aang got me out of the ice, but then why didn't they show up until then?"

"Easy." Bumi says. "It was an important time for Aang, so the avatar cycle thought it should be an important time for you."

"So you're saying that I got my powers because the avatar cycle thought it would be cool?" I ask sarcastically.

"You were already going to get powers and, in a way, you already had them. They just weren't strong enough for you to use until then. The avatar cycle didn't choose anything. It was confused."

"So… you knew?" I ask Bumi. "You knew all along?"

"Is that why you called me avatar?" Aang asks suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"When me and Elian came here. At the start of this all. You called me _avatar_ Aang."

"I called you the avatar to tell Elian. I'm sure you didn't want to tell her yourself."

"I can't say you're wrong."

Also thinking back on my first visit here, I remember something. "Is that why you didn't act surprised when I got my wings for the first time?" I ask.

Bumi nods. "I already knew you had powers."

"But, wait. Kuzon said the monks didn't know about my powers." I say, glancing at Kuzon.

"They didn't. I guessed."

"So you just guessed I had powers? Why didn't you say anything to the airbenders?" I wasn't upset that he kept it from the airbenders. In fact, I was pretty grateful that the airbenders didn't know.

"If we're being honest here, I thought they were pretty cooky. So, Kuzon. What made you tell them?"

Kuzon blushes deeply. "Uh…"

"I did." I say quickly. "I was freeing him from the masked men, and he was acting weird so I made him talk. And when we were all safe, I made him tell the others."

Bumi nods, though something in his eyes tells me he knows it's something we don't want to say, and that he's just being respectful.

"Hey Bumi."

"Hmm?"

"Why didn't anyone ever tell us?"

"I know why I never told you."

"Well why didn't you tell us?"

"They asked me not to."

"You never told us we were twins because they asked you not to?"

"Yup." He answers. "I knew they had their own ways, and that if they were sending their higher members, such as master Pasang that it must have been important to them. So I kept it a secret."

"I have a question for you Kuzon." I say suddenly.

"Mhm?"

"If no one, not even the very monk that trained me, knew I had powers at all, how do you know know that me and Aang have a spirit form?"


	22. Chapter 22: Saving the twin spirits

"I, uh." Kuzon stutters. "OK, I promise I have a good explanation for this."

"OK, so?" I ask.

"Well, this is a story about my great grandad that my dad told me. And he heard from his dad who heard from his dad… Well, here it goes."

 _Lonzen stirred in his sleep._

" _Help us." The spirit begged._

 _Lonzen looked up at the spirit. "What is it, Kahnoo?"_

" _Help us." Kahnoo repeated, growing more restless by the second._

" _What trouble is there? What has happened?" He asked again, staring at the large, white wolf spirit._

" _Help us, my dear friend. We are in great need of your assistance, once again. The young spirits, Han and Diak. They are sick. Very weak. Help us, Lonzen. You must save them. If you don't help, they will be nothing. Empty bodies."_

" _What should I do?"_

" _Come… Help us…"_

" _Where should I go?"_

" _The pond. Like usual, Lonzen."_

 _Lonzen shot up in bed. His wife sat up beside him. "What is it? What happened?"_

" _The spirits." He said, turning to her. "They need my help." She rested a hand on his shoulder. "I don't want to leave you, Lynia. I don't know how long I'll be gone this time."_

 _She pulled him into a hug. "I'll be fine here." She said. "Go. Help the spirits. If they're contacting you, it must be serious."_

 _Lonzen kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you."_

* * *

" _Return safely!" She called, waving._

 _He waved back at her. "I'll be back as soon as I can!"_

" _I love you, Lonzen! Promise me you'll not be reckless!"_

" _I promise, my Lynia."_

* * *

 _Lonzen arrived an hour later. The single pond held the clearest water in the fire nation. It was so clear, in fact, that you could hardly see that there was water in it at all. "I'm here, Kahnoo." Lonzen said._

 _The wolf spirit stepped out of the pond and stood in front of him. "We must hurry." He said, stooping onto his front legs._

 _Lonzen quickly got onto his back, like he had done many times before, and Kahnoo leaped into the pond._

 _Kahnoo jumped out of the pond and landed in the grass with a soft thud of his paws, then leaped forward again._

 _He continued until he reached a stone platform with a single tree in the center, and stopped to let Lonzen off his back. They both walked up to the tree. Against the tree lay two spirits. They looked like small children with no hair or clothing, one solid white, and the other bright blue. "Han. Diak. This is Lonzen. The friend I spoke of."_

 _They slowly opened their eyes and smiled. "They're so weak." Lonzen muttered to himself._

" _They need soul energy." Kahnoo said. "They simply are not strong enough on their own. We have tried to help them, but nothing seems to affect them positively. You are our last option."_

" _I will do my best." Lonzen sat cross legged and entered a deep meditative state._

"And every day," Kuzon continues, "he transferred a little bit of the energy that keeps him alive to them. He couldn't transfer much energy at a time, though, 'cause he had to recover each time."

"Are you sure this actually happened?" I ask.

"Of course I am!" Kuzon exclaims.

"How does this involve me and Aang?"

"Just listen!"

"OK, OK."

"Anyway,"

 _After two months of this, Han and Diak were finally showing some improvement. Not much, but some. Lonzen had just finished recovering from his most recent session when Kahnoo walked up to him. "How are they doing?" He asked._

" _Not much better than the last time you came to check up on them." He said._

" _Actually, Lonzen, I came for another reason."_

" _What is it?"_

" _The airbenders have made us an offer."_

" _What kind of an offer?" He asked skeptically._

" _It would save Han and Diak. It would also save two airbenders, one that they assume to be the avatar."_

 _Lonzen stood up immediately. "Bring me there."_

" _Follow me."_

* * *

" _I have him with me Pasang." After a moment, Kahnoo nodded and turned to Lonzen. "To shorten the story," he said, "the avatar has a twin."_

" _A twin. Quite unusual for an avatar."_

" _Yes. They are worried about the twin inheriting some of the avatar's powers, which they fear could have disastrous consequences. Do you think that, if they weren't weak, Han and Diak could help?"_

" _I believe that, if they weren't sick, they could still the powers enough to keep them from transferring to another person. It would save them too, to be inside a human body. Not to mention the very avatar and it's twin. And at the rate it's going now, it could be nearly a year until they're strong enough to be on their own, and even then I would have to come back at least once every month."_

" _That's exactly what I had in mind. Do you think we should accept?"_

" _...It's a deal. Han and Diak can live inside the bodies of the avatar and it's twin."_

 _Kahnoo turned towards the crescent moon shaped pond and repeated Lonzen's words. After a moment, he said "Right away," then turned to Lonzen. "Go and tell Han and Diak of the situation. I will stay here and discuss it with Monk Pasang."_

 _Lonzen nodded and turned off to the spirits._

"I'm not sure exactly what Lonzen told them," says Kuzon, "but they agreed right away."

 _Lonzen returned holding a spirit in each arm. "Are they ready?" Kahnoo asked. Lonzen nodded. Kahnoo leaned forwards to let Lonzen on his back, then jumped right into the crescent moon pond._

 _Kahnoo stepped out of the pond and into the small hut, which was hardly bigger than the pond itself. He let Lonzen off his back, then they both pushed past the curtain covering the doorway. They entered a small clearing where Pasang was sitting cross legged and two young airbenders ran on all fours, screaming nonsensical words and chasing each other in circles around Pasang._

"Hold on, hold on." I say.

"What?" Kuzon asks.

"You're talking about me and Aang, right?"

"Yeah. Just let me finish."

I sigh. "Go ahead."

 _Pasang reached out and grabbed one of them and laid him against his side, then grabbed the other toddler and laid her by her twin, who she snuggled against immediately. "I thought you said they would be sleeping." Kahnoo said. "We can not risk doing this while they're awake. You know they would reject the spirits."_

" _Yes, I know." Pasang sighed. "I thought you would need more time."_

" _Yes, well we're here now. We will wait."_

 _Pasang looked down at the twins. "They should be sleeping shortly. "_

 _Lonzen smiled at them. "They're identical." He stated._

" _Very rare for an avatar." Kahnoo said. "Impossibly rare."_

" _Yes. Impossibly rare. That is why we were worried about her gaining powers from her brother." Pasang looked down at the sleeping children._

 _Kahnoo nodded. "It is time."_

 _Pasang laid the twins on their backs, and Lonzen carefully set Han beside the girl, laid Diak beside the other, then he and Pasang stepped back. Han and Diak slowly and weakly rolled over and crawled to the heads of the twins. Without hesitation, they opened their mouths and the eyes of the twins glowed. Starting from their feet, Han and Diak's bodies faded out of their mouths and into the eyes of the twins. The twins continued sleeping soundly, seemingly as though nothing had happened. Then they both shot up, their eyes glowing two different colors, the girl white, and the boy bright blue. "It is done." They both said. "A deal's a deal." The twins grinned, their eyes stopped glowing, then they fell back._

 _Pasang knelt beside them quickly, then addressed Kahnoo. "Thank you for your assistance."_

 _Kahnoo nodded. "I will keep watch on them."_

 _Before Pasang could respond, Kahnoo turned, ran into the building, and leaped into the crescent moon pond with Lonzen._

* * *

 _Kahnoo jumped back out the spirit world and let Lonzen off his back. "Thank you, my friend." He said._

 _Lonzen smiles. "Of course, Kahnoo."_

 _Kahnoo turned, but paused before he entered the pond. "Good luck on your travel home."_

 _Lonzen smiled. "Good luck to you as well."_

* * *

" _Lonzen!" Lynia exclaimed. She hugged him._

" _I'm so sorry it took me so long." Lonzen apologized. "But I have good news."_

" _I do too." She said. "You go first."_

" _Alright. We managed to save the spirits and the avatar at the same time."_

" _The avatar? Alright, I must hear more about this, but first, I need to tell you something."_

" _What's the good news?"_

 _She smiled widely. "You're going to be a father."_

" _I'm going to be a…"_

 _She nodded, her eyes filling with tears from her excitement. "We're going to be parents!"_

Kuzon was quiet then. Me and Aang look at each other. "You aren't serious." I say.

"Do you think I could, or would, make up something like this?"

"You mean me and Aang have… have spirits inside us?"

Kuzon nods. "You and Aang have the twin spirits, Han and Diak, living inside you."

I take a deep breath. "I want to know everything you know about these spirits."

"Me too." Aang agrees.

 **Authors Fun fact: Han and Diak's names are based off of Handiak, the word for large in Basque.**


	23. Chapter 23: A chat with the spirits

"I don't know everything about them, but… I know that Han, the girl, is white, and Diak is bright blue. And I know that when they're not sick, they can fuse themselves together and turn into a huge version of the two of them, one half blue, one half white. That's what your spirit form is. When you two are in your powerful forms, Han and Diak are closest to the world around you. So, when you guys are touching in your powerful forms, they can just touch each other, and they can fuse themselves together. No one really knows any more than that. And not even the airbenders knew about your spirit form. First it was just Kahnoo that knew, then he told Lonzen, and that was passed down with the rest of the story. That's all I know about them, except that it sounds like they might be a little too fun loving for their own good sometimes."

"I don't know what to say about this." I say. Aang shakes his head disbelievingly, obviously in agreement to my last statement.

"I-I'm sorry guys." Kuzon apologizes.

"Stop saying that!" I snap.

Kuzon silently hangs his head and averts his eyes from me.

"It's been a crazy last few days, huh?" Aang asks.

"No." I respond. "Just today."

Aang sighs. "Appa and Tiki are siblings."

"We're twins."

"I can have wings."

"I can have a tail."

Me and Aang smile as we continue playfully. "I can fly with wings."

"We have spirits inside us."

"There are two avatars at once."

"I'm the second."

"Our statue showed up earlier than it should have."

"Yeah, that'll probably change."

"Probably will."

"We still have people with black outfits and white masks trying to kill us."

"The secret of us being twins passed around like a family heirloom."

"Our friend's cousin's want us dead."

"Appa and Tiki have the same mother."

I smile. "You already said that. I win."

All four of us laugh. "I can't believe you guys are joking around at a time like this!" Kuzon exclaims.

"It's all we can do." I respond.

"I'm sorry I kept this all from you two."

"How many times are you gonna say that?!" I shout.

"OK, Elian. What do you want me to do? What can I do to make this up to you?! Please, tell me! I'll do it!"

"We need to talk." I say, standing up. "We'll meet you guys back in the main room." I add to Aang and Bumi. They stand up and leave.

"What do you want me to do? I've told you, Elian, I shouldn't have kept this from you, and I'm really sorry."

"You don't get it, do you Kuzon?"

"Get what?"

"Kuzon, it was real!"

"... What was?"

"When I was trying to free you."

"Oh…"

After a long, awkward moment, I speak up. "You just don't understand."

"So help me understand." Kuzon says gently.

I sigh. "I don't know when, or how, but I… I think… I think I was falling in love with you." I stare at him intently, but his face shows no obvious emotion. Nothing to tell how he's reacting to this. I feel tears sliding down my cheeks and I hurriedly wipe them away. "And then…" I take a deep breath and wipe my eyes again. "I'm going out to the others." I turn and leave.

"Where's Kuzon?" Aang asks when I enter the the room alone.

"Not coming yet."

"Oh. Alright. We're trying to come up with a plan to figure out this thing with Nupira."

"Well, first things first; We'll need help, and we'll need a lot of it." I say. "Do you guys know anyone we could get to come fight?"

Aang nods. "We know a lot of people."

"We'll need to find them, then."

"You two will need to practice your spirit form, too." Kuzon says. "It might come in handy." We turn to look at him. "Maybe you could find a way to contact them? Talk to Han and Diak."

"Who are Han and Diak?" Katara asks.

"Might as well tell _them_ the whole story, too." I say to Kuzon.

"Well, t-to say it really short, um, there was a problem when… when Aang and Elian were little, the airbenders were afraid that Elian might get some of Aang's powers, so they asked the spirits for help, and a wolf spirit named Kahnoo put the twin spirits, Han and Diak, inside Aang and Elian. Which was actually a perfect deal, because Han and Diak were too weak on their own, they couldn't produce enough soul energy by themselves, and Han and Diak also have the ability to keep Aang's powers, well… Aangs."

"Hold up, you're sayin' they have spirits in them?" Toph asks.

Kuzon nods. "Do you think there might be a way to contact them?" He asks Aang.

"Maybe."

"Wait." I say. "You said they're closest to the _outside world_ when we're in our powerful forms, right?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe we could talk to them then."

"I don't like where this is going." Aang says.

"Hey, maybe only I have to go all powerful. Maybe I just need to make contact, then you'll be able to talk to them too."

"I hope."

I turn and walk towards the doors. "Where are you going?" Aang asks, walking beside me.

"Outside."

"Good idea." Aang responds while we walk through the doors.

We silently walk down both sets of steps and stop at the bottom. "Stand back." Aang takes a few steps back. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, let my wings form, then sit cross legged on the ground. "I'm not sure what I'm doing," I call out to seemingly no one, "but if you can hear me, I need to talk to you. Me and Aang need to talk to you, Han and Diak."

Aang's eyes glow bright blue, and since everything is suddenly tinted white, I'm guessing mine are now glowing white. I stand up. "What's going on?" Aang asks.

My wings disappear. "I don't know, but I-"

"You called?" A high pitched voice calls out.

I freeze. "Tell me I wasn't the only one that heard that just now."

"I heard it too."

A laughter erupted from the same voice, and another that was similar, but slightly deeper. "I don't recall actually talking with either of you before. Do I know you?" The deeper voice joked.

"Han." Said the first voice. "And the annoying one's Diak."

"I'm the annoy one now?" Asked Diak. "I'm the one who got the avatar."

"Don't bring that up now!" Han exclaims. "You know we just got whoever was the same gender! Sorry about that, you two."

"That's fine!" I say. "It's nice to talk to you."

"You have no idea!"

"Who are you talking to?" Zuko asks.

We turn and see that everyone else has joined us outside, and they gasp at seeing our eyes. "They can't hear us." Han says.

"Why not?" Me and Aang ask.

"Why not what?" Toph asks.

"Only reason you two can hear us is 'cause we're inside you." Diak says.

"Right." Aang says. "Then how come we can't only hear who's inside us directly? Ya know, I hear you, and Elian hears Han."

"You two are connected psychically, partially because you're twins. So are me and Diak." Han explains.

"I guess that makes sense, when you think about it." I say.

"What's going on?" Katara asks. "What happened to you?"

"Who are you talking to?" Kuzon asks.

"They're pretty confused." Diak states.

Me and Aang laugh. "Yeah, _Diak,_ they are."

"You got it to work, then?" Kuzon asks.

"You could say that." Han says.

"Yeah. We got it to work."

"We can't hear them?" Kuzon asks.

"No, you can't hear them."

"Why not? And why are your eyes glowing?!"

"Our eyes are glowing because… why _are_ our eyes glowing, Han?"

Han laughs. "Your eyes are glowing because we're psychically connected."

"OK. According to Han, our eyes are glowing because we're psychically connected to them."

"And why can't we hear them?"

This time Aang answers. "The only reason _we_ can hear them is because they're inside us."

"OK, this crazy." Kuzon says. "I'm literally seeing my childhood stories come to life."

"Excuse me." Han says. "I really wish I could have talked to you two sooner, but we're only allowed to talk to you if you contact us."

"Yeah." Says Diak. "There are a few rules to what you are and aren't allowed to do when you live inside a human body."

"Doesn't that bother you?" I ask.

"Yeah." Aang adds. "Doesn't it bother you, not being able to control yourself?"

"Not much." Han says.

"We couldn't really control ourselves before, ya know, when we were too weak to _move._ " Diak explains.

Me and Aang laugh. "Hey." Han says. "There's someone who would love to meet you."

"Who?" I ask.

"Do you remember Kahnoo? From the story?"

"Kahnoo!" Me and Aang exclaim in unison. "Where do we need to go?"

Now it was Han and Diak's turn to laugh. "We can show you."

"What are you talking about?"

I turn to see only Kuzon left outside. "They're gonna show us to Kahnoo."

"What? Can… can they hear me?"

I nod. "They can hear anything we can hear."

Kuzon freezes for a moment. "Has Kahnoo actually been watching them like he said?"

"He has."

"Yeah." I say. "C'mon." I add to Aang. "Which way are we going, Han? Oh, Kuzon, go tell the others we're leaving, alright?"

"But-"

"We're going to the pond!"

"You guys can ride Appa!" Aang calls behind us.


	24. Chapter 24: I fell for you

Two days later:

"How long can we keep connected to you guys?" I ask, leaning back on Tiki's head.

"There isn't really a time stamp on it." Han responds.

"I know what you're gonna ask next." Diak says. "And to do that you just need to ask and we'll be gone. But I'd rather you not."

"Mhm." Han agrees. "It's been really lonely, just the two of us."

I smile. "We won't shut you out unless we have to. Right, Aang?" I call behind me.

"Right." He answers.

I sit up and look over at the ground moving beneath us. "There, by the edge of the trees." Han says. "Do you see it?"

"I see it." I say, then flick the reigns on Tiki and she slowly lowers to the ground.

* * *

"This is it, then." I say, looking into the pond of unrealistically clear water. "This is the pond from the story. I see the water hasn't changed."

"And it won't any time soon. There are only two spots in the world where the spirit world and physical world touch, and spirit world water is naturally in this world. The other one is at the southern temple." Han explains.

"How do we contact him?" I ask.

"Same way Lonzen did, same way you contacted us." Diak says.

I turn to the pond. "Kahnoo? Are you there?"

A moment later, the reflection of the wolf spirit appears in the water. "It's us, Kahnoo. Han and Diak." Han says.

Me and Aang step back as the wolf spirit steps out of the water, perfectly dry. "Han? Diak? I didn't think I would talk to you again for quite a while. And I didn't think I would talk to you for a few years yet." He adds to me and Aang.

"It's an honor to meet you." I say.

"Likewise." He says, respectively tipping his head. "I see you have finally made contact."

We nod. "We only heard the story about you and Lonzen two days ago." Aang says.

Kahnoo nods. "You are fairly new to this then. I hope this all is not too overwhelming."

We shake our heads. "A bit sudden, but not very overwhelming. "

"I must ask." Says Kahnoo. "What do you plan on doing about the ones hunting you?"

"We're going to gather up a bunch of people who are willing to help stand against her. Safety in numbers."

Kahnoo nods. "Shall I be allowed to join?"

I look over at Aang. "Say, what do you think?"

We both laugh. "We'd love to have you along." Aang responds.

We all turn to see Appa landing not far from the pond. "Great timing guys!" I exclaim. "We were just getting ready to leave. This is Kahnoo."

Kuzon immediately steps up to Kahnoo, puts his hands together, and bows. "It's an honor to meet you." He says, his eyes glowing with excitement.

Kahnoo smiles and tips his head respectfully. "You have as much respect as your great grandfather."

Kuzon grins. "Thank you, Kahnoo."

"Kahnoo's gonna join us and help fight the masked men." I say.

Tiki then walks up and groans happily. I hug the side of her head and smile. Looking back over at Kahnoo, I see that he stands nearly half as tall as Tiki. I airbend myself onto Tiki's head. "Where's our first stop?" I ask.

* * *

It's been nearly two weeks. We've been everywhere, and we've collected quite the group of people. Me and Aang disconnected from Han and Diak at our first stop, so we wouldn't freak anyone out with our glowing eyes. We started by putting people on Appa and Tiki, but very soon we ran out of room and Zuko helped us get hold of one of the old war blimps, that easily held everyone. Kuzon and Kahnoo have been inseparable since they met. They've been best friends, always together. A few times I've come across them both asleep, with Kuzon curled against Kahnoo's belly. We've stopped for the night again, but I think we might get there tomorrow.

Everyone else is asleep already. I can't sleep. We're attacking Nupira really soon, and even though me and Aang have been practicing the entire time we've been collecting our group, I feel like I'm not ready. A shadow slowly spreads across the ground and I sit up. "Sorry." Kuzon whispers. "Did I wake you up?"

"Couldn't sleep." I whisper back. "What are you doing?"

"I was just… actually, can we talk?"

I nod and stand up and he follows me away from camp.

"What did you need to talk about?"

"I can't sleep because I've been thinking about what you told me in Omashu."

I look down. "I'm really sorry about that. It was way too sudden."

Kuzon shakes his head. "No, _I'm_ sorry. Really. I shouldn't have reacted like I did."

I smile at him sloppily, then my face drops and my eyes begin to prickle with tears. "I know, I'm not very good at expressing myself. It was really bad timing, and, and… I shouldn't have gotten mad at you, and…" I sniffle. "I did a pretty bad job, huh?"

Kuzon rests a hand on my shoulder. I sniffle again and lean against him, letting him rub my back comfortingly. "You probably think I'm a terrible person, huh?" I ask.

"I could easily say the same thing." Kuzon responds.

"I don't think you're a terrible person." We say in unison.

We step apart from each other and laugh, then we look down awkwardly. "So…" Kuzon starts. "You said _was_ so, uh… not anymore then?"

I stay silent. "I don't know." I finally whisper. "Let's just get some sleep, alright?"

"Wait. What were you going to say? Back in Omashu, you never finished your sentence. Right before you left."

"I was going to say _Then you go and tell me you've been lying this whole time._ "

Kuzon holds his arms out. "Can-"

He's cut off when I crash into him, hugging him tightly. "I just didn't know what to do." I mutter.

"I don't blame you for it. It's alright, Elian. I'm not upset with you." He answers.

I nod. "I think I made a mistake saying was." I mutter.


	25. Chapter 25: The Final Battle Part one

**Sorry I didn't get around to this chapter last week. Unfortunately, next chapter may or may not be the same way, but I'll try to get it done by next week.**

It's been two more days and we've finally arrived. While Hakota gives the others a speech, me and Aang are a little into the trees, talking with Han and Diak.

"You two will be alright." Han assures.

I sigh. "We're just worried about this." Aang says.

"Yeah." I agree. "We've never been in our spirit form before."

"Remember," Diak says, "we can take over if anything happens."

"OK. One more time, what do we need to expect in our spirit form?" I ask.

Han sighs. "You're going to feel really powerful. More powerful than you've ever felt in your whole life. And it is going to feel strange. You are going to have a whole other body built around you, and at first me and Diak may have to take over until you get a handle on it. You are going to be floating in mid air, very high off the the ground, and any move you try to make, your half of the spirit form will copy."

I nod. Thinking about the form, I'm reminded of a nightmare I had. Where I was floating in mid air in this giant person like thing, and someone else was controlling the left, while I was in the right half. Though I couldn't control it. That was when I had talked with Kuzon in the forest. Is that what it will be like?

I'm shaken from my thoughts by a commotion to the left of me. "It looks like they're done." I say. "You gotta go, guys."

"Of course." Han responds.

The world returns to its normal colors. "Let's go, Aang."

Aang nods and we join the others. "Would you like to go over it once more?" Rajah asks.

Me and Aang look at each other, than at Rajah, then we nod. "OK," Rajah says. "First, the rest of us are going to go up to the temple while you two stay back here. Me, Zuko, and Kuzon will go in and lure them out. Kahnoo will get Nupira to follow him and give you guys the signal. Once you see the signal, you will need to run into the trees, make sure Nupira is following you, and lead her to the clearing to the left of the temple, and you'll battle her there. And remember, we will try to keep her sister's back if we can, but we can't promise anything. Are you ready?"

Me and Aang nod determinedly. Rajah smiles proudly, then turns and joins the others. As the group walks off, me and Aang look at each other nervously, then our eyes glow.

* * *

Me and Aang remain standing, staring alertly at the trees where Kahnoo is supposed to give us the signal. "Any second now…" I mutter.

"You'll do just fine. Both of you." Han assures.

"I hope you're right." Aang replies.

"I'm so nervous!" I exclaim. "You'll take over if it looks at all like we aren't controlling it right, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, we said that. What, are you worried we'll sit back and relax if anything gets out of hand?" Diak responded.

I sigh. "You have a point. Hey, can I ask you guys a question?"

"Shoot."

"If you and Han were put into me and Aang to keep me from having powers, what happened? Why do I have powers now?"

"We tried?"

Han sighs. "We managed to keep them back until you were frozen. When you had those visions, Aang's powers were beginning to leak into you, because you both had been experiencing things that could have been fatal. Well, when Aang freed you, the powers were too much for us to keep back."

I keep my eyes glued to the trees while I continue with my next question. "Could you guys talk to each other while me and Aang were frozen?"

"Yeah." Diak responds.

"Diak told me a lot about your adventures, Aang." Han adds.

"So… have you been able to see _everything_ for this _whole time?_ " Aang asks, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yup! Don't worry, I won't say anything embarrassing."

"Aang, look!"

Kahnoo runs up to a nearby tree, then flicks his tail. "That's the signal, Elian! Let's go!"

Me and Aang run into the nearby trees, then glance back to make sure that Nupira has seen us. She's right behind us. She gasps worriedly when she sees our eyes, then she gives us an angry snarl. "That stupid boy!" I hear her mutter angrily.

Me and Aang run into the clearing. We run to the opposite side of the clearing, then separate, Aang running to the left, and me running to the right. Nupira remains in the center of the circle. "What are you gonna do?" I ask. "You gotta choose one of us."

Nupira grins. "Do you really think you are going to fool me by splitting directions? Do you honestly think I'm going to get stuck on this? I have waited so long for this. I will get rid of both of you for good, and then no one will stand in my way, and the fire nation will be mine."

"Yeah, let's see how far you get there." I retort.

Nupira grins. "Let's."

* * *

She fires her hand forwards for a shot, but Ty Lee easily avoids her. She tries again. And again. Her eyes widen and she stares in surprise at Ty Lee. Ty Lee smiles. "I've gotten better than you thought I would, huh?"

Shalia rolls her eyes. "No problem. Even if you have learned a few new evasive techniques, I taught you everything you know about actual fighting."

"You taught me everything I know about chi blocking." Ty

Lee corrects.

"I still know more than you!" Exclaims Shalia's high pitched voice.

Ty Lee avoids another shot.

"I trained not only you, but over a hundred soldiers in the art of chi blocking." Shalia shoots her hand forwards and misses Ty Lee's neck by less than and inch.

"But do you really want fight your old student, Shalia?"

Shalia freezes. She shakes her head. "Stop messing with me, I've got a job to do."

"I'm not messing with you. I just asked you a question. You don't really want to fight me, do you?"

"I have to whether I want to or not."

"And why's that?"

Shalia's only answer was a shot towards Ty Lee. Ty Lee caught her hand, brought it as high as it would go, then dragged it down, causing Shalia to be jerked to her knees.

"Fine! I'll tell you why!" Shalia exclaims, looking downcast with embarrassment. "I'm afraid of Nupira."

Ty Lee smiles. "I knew you were on our side!"

Shalia quickly stands up and her eyes shine with a newfound fear. "But-"

Ty Lee hugs her tightly. "I've missed you, Shalia."

Shalia hugs her back. "Me too. OK, I'll do it. I'll fight against my sisters."

They step apart and Ty Lee smiles widely.

"The soldiers have a weakness." Shalia says seriously. "I made sure of that when I trained them. Just in case something happened."


	26. Chapter 26: The final battle part two

**OK, everyone! This is it! It's the last chapter! I want to thank you all soooo much for reading this to the end. It's been a wild adventure for me, since this is my first of many stories, fanfic and original, that I will be writing. It's been super, super fun to write this, but I wouldn't have been able to if it weren't for you guys coming behind me and reading it all! So, here it is! The big finale!**

The battle went on for a while, and after about thirty minutes, me and Aang are pretty tired and ready to be done with this. It seems that Nupira is also.

She uses a hand gesture to call over a masked man, but me and Aang make no move to stop her. She whispers something to him and he whispers a response, nods and bows, then rushes off.

"What did you send him to do?" I ask.

"I've sent him to get me some backup. This is taking longer than I anticipated."

Just then, a flaming blur shoots into the ground between me and Aang and we jump back. I quickly pull out my glider and blow into the side, causing it to open to a full glider, then I toss it into the air in front of me and jump onto it like a surfboard. I surf through the air right above Aang and smile down at him. "C'mon Aang! Try it!"

In a few seconds I see Aang grinning at me from on top his glider on the other side of the clearing. For a few minutes, me and Aang avoid Ikasa's arrows and send them in other directions with air blasts. Then I spot something. "Aang!" I shout.

Aang turns his glider around in the air and looks at me alertly.

I point. "She's brought more backup!"

Aang looks down at Akunia, then looks back up at me and nods.

"Hey, airheads!" she shouts teasingly.

"Airheads?" I call back. "Is that the best you have?"

She sends a fire blast that misses me by a few inches, then does the same for Aang. "Oh, yes, that's definitely all I have," she says sarcastically, "I just thought I'd come here to say a childish insult and leave."

I roll my eyes and send an air blast towards her. She jumps out of the way. "You'll have to try harder than that. Though, if I were you, I would just give up. You couldn't even stay conscious long enough to notice that your people were all being killed. How do you expect to beat us?"

Me and Aang freeze. That was way out of line. "Aang." I look over at him. "Don't listen to her."

Aang's breathing quickens and before I can react, he enters the avatar state and his glider falls to the ground. If we're gonna do this spirit form thing, we have to do it now. My wings form and my and Aang's eyes glow and I fly for Aang. A flaming arrow whizzes past me, then a shot of fire, but I avoid them both. Before Aang can react, I stop in front of him and grab his hands in mine, causing an enormous blast of blue light.

It's just like last time. I'm floating in mid air inside this giant person like thing. The left half is blue, and my half is white. This time, however, I notice fiery orange arrows. Where last time there was a black sphere, Aang now hovers beside me. He looks around confusedly and fearfully. "Elian?" he asks. "Are you OK?"

I nod.

He looks down at himself and lifts his left arm in front of his face, and the left arm of the spirit copies him. I look down at myself as well and lift my right arm, but the spirit doesn't follow.

"I think Han's controlling my half," I say.

"I am," Han says. "Are you sure you can control it? I know you had that dream, and-"

"What dream?" Aang interrupts.

I hear whispers and I know that the three sisters are planning their next move. "There isn't time right now, I can handle it."

I feel myself gain control of the right half of the spirit. "Let's just try walking before we try and fight."

Aang nods, then carefully steps his left foot forwards, and the spirit moves with him. I do the same, with the same results.

"Aww, look! The babies are learning how to walk!" Akunia exclaims sarcastically.

I grin. "We're learning a lot more than that."

* * *

Kuzon jumps back and narrowly misses a chi blocking shot from the masked man. He screams out as another masked man tries to hit him, but only hits his hand instead.

Soon, he's surrounded.

"Guys? I could use some help! Someone?!"

The masked men close in on him, and begin falling one by one. When the circle clears out, Kuzon is faced with Shalia and Ty Lee.

"She's on our side now," Ty Lee says excitedly.

Shalia nods in agreement. "I never trained them to defend against attacks on their head or neck."

Kuzon grins. "Got it."

* * *

We haven't been fighting for very long in the spirit form, but we haven't needed to. It's clear that even Nupira, her sisters, and the masked men are all no match against us. But it hasn't been super easy, either.

Multiple flaming arrows fly past the spirit form. The spirit form steps back from a fire blast and lunges for Akunia, who jumps out of the way just in time.

Me and Aang carefully control the spirit to bend a strip of water out of a nearby pond and begin using it as a whip. We crack the water whip beside Ikasa, causing her to stumble and shoot her next arrow into the ground.

Searing hot pain shoots through my legs and, judging by Aang's reaction, he feels the same thing. The pain causes us to drop the water and we look down to see Akunia grin at us, then turn and grin in confirmation at Nupira.

All three of them immediately attack us. An arrow whizzes past the spirit's head and I feel a warm pounding in my right ear.

The spirit steps back it's left foot, Aang screams, and Nupira pulls her sword back.

"Aang!" I shout.

I can't react further before a strong fire blast causes me and Aang to make the spirit stumble and fall back. I feel a sharp pain in my side and I instinctively swat my hand, sending Nupira skidding across the ground.

Me and Aang struggle to overpower the sisters, but it's no use.

"We can't do this! They're too powerful!" I shout while the spirit rolls onto it's side to avoid Nupira's sword.

"Han, Diak! We need help!" Aang agrees, helping me inch the spirit further from the sisters.

Han and Diak must have heard, because they take control of the spirit and me and Aang watch them fight in amazement.

The spirit jumps up and shoots it's hands into the ground, propelling the sisters into the air and letting them land with three thuds. Before they can do more than stand, the spirit sends three simultaneous air blasts from it's mouth and hands. They stand again, but Han and Diak are already three steps ahead of them. The spirit gets a water whip from the pond and cracks it. Nupira isn't willing to give up so easily and tries to get close, but the spirit whips her, causing her to stumble back. The sisters are soon forced to fall into the pond and the spirit bends over them.

"Take 'em down," says the combined voice of Han and Diak.

Me and Aang regain control and slam the spirits fists into the bottom of the shallow pond. The impact sends water out of the sides and earth straps them down over their feet, legs, hands, arms, and chests.

There's a bright blue light and the next thing I know, me and Aang are standing next to each other on the ground, our eyes still glowing. We both grin. "We did it, Aang."

We join the others, only to see that a masked man had seen Nupira's defeat and that they had surrendered, pledging their loyalty to Zuko, and celebrating being free of Nupira.

* * *

Shalia grew a great interest in the Kyoshi warriors and Suki allowed her to join and become a warrior herself. As for the other three sisters: Nupira was sent to the same place as Azula, and Akunia and Ikasa had to begin rebuilding the palace immediately.

Once the battle was over and the bad guys were taken care of, the new team avatar met up at "Kyro's" tea shop.

I step out onto the balcony and watch the sunset.

Nupira has been defeated. Everyone is safe. My twin and his friends can return to their lives and I can begin living a new one. But I think the best thing of all was that I was able to meet Kuzon. I love being around him. I love his voice, his laugh, his occasional sarcasm, everything about him.

As if on cue, Kuzon steps beside me. "Hey, Elian. Are you alright?"

I nod. "I'm just glad it's over. What are planning on doing now?"

Kuzon shrugs. "I love my dad and I'd like to go back and see him, but after that…"

"What?"

Kuzon blushes and tries to hide it by looking down. "I kinda want to hang with you."

I tilt my head. "Hang with me?"

Kuzon turns to look at me, and we stand facing each other. "What did you mean when you told me _I think I made a mistake saying was_?"

I feel my cheeks grow warm, then hot. "You said that since I said was that I wasn't… wasn't in love with you anymore. I shouldn't have said was. I didn't mean it. There's no was here."

Kuzon smiles gently, his face glowing with relief. "There's no was here either."

I smile back and slowly we grow closer and closer together. Kuzon places a hand on my shoulder and I in turn place a hand on the back of his neck. We stare at each other silently until our lips gently press together and we both make a silent vow to remember this night for the rest of our lives. Not as the night we won the battle against Nupira, but as the night we finally confessed to each other and ourselves that at some point during our wild journey… we had fallen in love.

 _My name is Elian, and I'm an airbender. This was the story of how I saved a world I was destined to save from the very beginning._

 **I will be posting a revised version of this fanfic on my deviantart profile, and on my ArchiveOfOurOwn profile. My deviantart profile name is FandomsUnite325, and my Ao3 name is FandomsUnite17. Thanks for reading!**


End file.
